Beekeeping with Indigenous People in the Amazon

In communities along the rivers of Loreto, Magnolia is becoming a familiar face. As a beekeeping promoter, she travels through the region teaching people to tend stingless bees as part of the itinerant native bee school.

Magnolia was drawn to beekeeping after seeing a neighbor sell honey from hives he tended. She came to the program ready to learn, and she hasn't stopped since. Over the last seven years, she and her family expanded their efforts and now tend 23 colonies in their front yard below mango and lemon trees.

She didn't stop at keeping bees. Four years ago, through this program, she began learning to teach. In leading workshops, Magnolia draws on her own beekeeping misadventures as teaching moments, turning mistakes into lessons with humor and honesty. Her students leave having learned as much from what went wrong as from what went right.

Today, Magnolia earns income running beekeeping workshops throughout Loreto and regularly leads sessions for tourists at the local lodge. She has taught in over 15 communities, leaving behind the groundwork for hundreds more sustainably managed hives.

Magnolia is now building a third layer of skills through training with OnePlanet. She and the other promoters are learning to write reports, design programs, conduct evaluations, and more. These skills position them to comprehensively lead beekeeping initiatives on their own terms.

Beekeeping is only part of who she is. Magnolia is also a farmer, a mother, and a skilled palm fiber artist, carrying forward a traditional craft deeply rooted in local culture. When other organizations were looking for someone to teach palm fiber embroidery techniques, they needed not only an artist, but someone who could demonstrate, guide, and inspire. Magnolia, of course, was exactly that person. The confidence she had built as a beekeeping promoter had made her into a skilled educator, ready to share the knowledge she carries.

Her daughter, she says, wants to grow up to be just like her.