Semas participates in Beekeeping and Meliponiculture Seminar in Paragominas
Secretariat managers expressed interest in identifying and mapping honey producers and community meliponiculture projects, aiming to support the Regulariza Pará Program
The State Secretariat for the Environment, Climate and Sustainability (Semas) participated last week in the IV Beekeeping and Meliponiculture Seminar of Pará and the II Pará Honey Contest, in Paragominas, in southeastern Pará. The event was attended by public and private institutions that promote the honey production chain, agribusiness, and family farming, with the aim of understanding the potential of meliponiculture and beekeeping in the State, as well as creating networks and possibilities for local development.
The director of Forest Management and Agrosilvopastoral at Semas, Luiz André Cordeiro Absolão, emphasized that "beekeeping and meliponiculture contribute to the development of the honey bioeconomy in Pará, as it is a sustainable production chain. This seminar came to reinforce the importance of this activity, recognize projects, and value honey production in the State. In this event, in addition to Semas's participation, public and private institutions were present to promote the honey production chain, agribusiness, and, mainly, the advances of family farming."
Biodiversity - Beekeeping is an activity that involves the breeding and management of bees, aiming to obtain products such as honey, wax, propolis, and pollen, and to provide pollination services, while meliponiculture is the practice of breeding stingless bees (from the meliponine group) - a sustainable activity that promotes the conservation of biodiversity, biological balance, and the production of honey and other derivatives.
“Semas, through the Agrosilvopastoral Directorate, participated in the opening table, informing that it is interested in mapping honey producers and community meliponiculture projects that will receive support from the Regulariza Pará Program, in addition to clarifying doubts related to the services offered by the sector. An essential project for the maintenance of biodiversity and the fight against climate change,” said Luiz Absolão.
Semas, responding to a historical demand from meliponiculturists - producers who raise native stingless bees (ANSF) for honey production - implemented in 2024 Resolution Coema No. 184, which establishes guidelines for the simplified environmental licensing of meliponiculture, promoting the preservation of these bees, which play a crucial role in pollination and ecological balance.
“The resolution modernized sustainable management practices, ensured legal security for the activity, and allowed for the creation and management of stingless bees. Thus, meliponiculturists in Pará have the opportunity to market hives, products, and by-products, such as honey, propolis, and wax. This regulation was a step forward for the protagonism of small producers in the honey production chain, giving greater added value to their products,” concluded the director.
Semas also composed the jury of the II Best Honey Championship of the State of Pará, together with representatives from the Federal Rural University of the Amazon (Ufra), the State Technical School of Pará (EETEPA) local, the Brazilian Service of Support for Micro and Small Enterprises (Sebrae), and the Pará Federation of Beekeeping and Meliponiculture.
