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- Title
From neglect to stardom: how the rising popularity of stingless bees threatens diversity and meliponiculture in Mexico.
- Authors
Quezada-Euán, José Javier G.; May-Itzá, William J.; de la Rúa, Pilar; Roubik, David W.
- Abstract
Mexico is part of the Mesoamerican region where ancient bee keeping (meliponiculture, or stingless bee keeping) emerged and reached exceptional levels. Different events caused Mexican stingless bee keeping to decline. Recently, meliponiculture has modernized and is undergoing a dramatic change, rising from neglect to an alarming popularity. The increase in commerce and number of species under management fundamentally affect, and are influenced by, translocation of colonies across geographic regions. Moreover, the social networks that propel commercialization create the impression that maintaining bees as resources or pets and promoting honey and other commercial products at premium prices are inherently desirable. The ecology of pollination in nature is rarely considered, nor the ecological network of the bee populations and their many associated organisms and ecological processes. With growing numbers and types of bee keepers and bee keeping methods, changes are posing novel risks to the integrity of native species. Such emerging factors may certainly impact biodiversity of Mexican stingless bees and the sustainability of meliponiculture. We examine findings on population differentiation among Mexican bees and measures urgently needed in the short term, with possible application in other regions of the world that experience problems caused by the modern stingless bee boom.
- Publication
Apidologie, 2022, Vol 53, Issue 6, p1
- ISSN
0044-8435
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s13592-022-00975-w