People, bees and food | Complementary ecolog

Cross-pollinating agriculture, ecosystems and food: human/bee relationships in Anolaima, Colombia

Behind every cup of coffee, fruit salad, and chocolate bar there are hundreds of pollinating insects that serve as links between forests, agricultural fields and food. Insects, especially bees, mediate the production of ~ 85% of tropical crop plant species, being essential but –in Latin America– often overlooked components of livelihood security. Currently, bees and traditional small-scale tropical agroecosystems are threatened by the expansion of industrial agriculture. My project seeks to investigate the cultural repertoire by which traditional smallholders in Anolaima, Colombia, relate to native bees and to agroecosystems, and its implications to bee populations and to farmers’ livelihood security.

Bees and agriculture (or some of the foods bees facilitate to produce)

People and bees

Bees and ecosystems

People and agriCulture

Anolaima, the fruit capital of Colombia. This inscription reminds Anolaimans of their peasant identity and invites to embrace the land and culture with pride. Agriculture in Anolaima is eroding, just like this inscription.	Traditional peasants always knew and loved the rhythms and flow of nature. In this old room squash grows for the sake of its human and non human companions, such as pollinating bees.
The kitchen, a place where knowledge, practice and senses come together to prepare foods that nurture beings. In this moment I counted at least five foods produced with the help of an animal pollinator.	Food is provided, not only for humans. All is shared.
And care is provided, not only to humans.	Observers are all about curiosity: researchers. These caterpillars arrived on a tree and were kept until their metamorphosis was completed. Their care taker, a gentle and curious lady, got a bit disappointed the resulting moth was cryptic, yet she thought "it had some grace."
Most transitory crops in Anolaima are produced with the help of synthetic agrochemicals. Six year old children know names and uses of these products. Growing with potential poisons becomes normal from an early age.	RoundUp and Lorsban are required companions for some farmers. Some respected "urbanites" returning to work the land trust synthetic agrochemicals so, why wouldn't rural people use them?
Production may rise with agrochemical use. However, production is not guaranty of profitability. People can receive $50.000 COP per a bulto of guatilas, and the next week the same weight is paid for $5.000.	The land is so degraded in some areas and agricultural management is so aggressive that no agrochemical is able to fight (or "improve") nature anymore.
Despite the concerning path of agricultural modernity in Anolaima, some peasants resist change by embracing change and its chaotic beauty through tradition. This guatila plant was expected to produce small, white and smooth fruits. Pollinators did their mixing and people enjoy new flavors.	Some areas in the municipality are still well-protected: coffee lands. Yet coffee growing is less profitable than ever. Most people are cutting coffee plants down to sow transitory crops or to feed more cows.
Aggressive land uses leave their footprint at the landscape scale. Small traditional farms may be small spots in an ocean of land for recreation or for agroindustrial management.	In some areas not even water sources are protected, especially where cattle ranching is the most common land use.

Stingless bees may not sting but bite. Some beekeepers prefer to keep things under control and treat both, stinging and stingless bees in the same way –some caution is welcome.	Error and trial will take stingless beekeepers to the best hive model
Different generations of beekeepers and different tools to extract honey	Don Gustavo and some of the bees he keeps
Makers: drying pollen and wax	A restaurant for bees (the garden of a beekeeper)
Beekeepers (honeybee and stingless bee keepers) have this incredible knowledge. They know where to locate wild nests, how to pick bees in the air with their hands and somehow differentiate the so similar stingless bee species found in the region.	Care towards bees also includes knowing about natural enemies: cleaning them and preserving them to learn more about them (and how to fight them). Lestremelitta limao, a cleptoparasitic bee, invaded a couple of the rational stingless bee nests Javier and Reinaldo keep. Some of the captured "enemies" have a small head of their victims –which died fighting– attached to their wings.
Strategies to protect bees from invaders include gates, traps and above all, observation.	The beautiful meliponario of the Luna family placed in a farm of honey and tradition.
Sporadically, visitors arrive to taste stingless-bee honey	Despite knowing lots of bees, local beekeepers do not know solitary bees. When asked, they were not sure some "flies" were actually flies or bees. It was confusing to see a green sweat bee visiting their skins. (Out of the picture, but: the face of a beekeeper friend observing for the first time an Euglossa bee was priceless).
Non-beekeepers do know about solitary bees when coexisting in human-made structures. A megachilid bee joined doña Martha in her kitchen. She knew about the nest and she had a hunch the bee had abandoned it.	Sometimes it's impossible to be away from bees, specially when they are gentle and sweet. Tetragonisca angustula nests in human-made walls. People just need to be careful not to wipe them down.
T. angustula also likes to nest in tree barks, and farmers are the best at noticing them	Euglossine bees like to join people in their homes too. I've found several euglossines nesting in blocks near peoples' bathrooms. People do not know they are bees, so sometimes they fight green visitors.
Omnidia robusta, the fly confounded with an euglossine bee.	Sarcophagidae flies... also confounded with bees
An euglossine condo, step 1	An euglossine condo, step 2
An euglossine condo, step 3: The future in the present	A closer look to the host (she and her offspring still live in the condo. The "human guardian" of the nest recently mentioned this colony is growing)
Another condo for Centris and Melitoma bees. The human owner of the house is a bit concerned these bees will tear down the wall.	Boca 'e sapo bees also build their nests in human constructions. These nests are made of mud, clay and resins thus they are heavy and may break people's walls.
If these bees have the chance, growing is the option. Many materials are welcome: teachings for bioconstruction.	On looking. Virginia Nazarea mentions there are always "irreverent" characters keeping biocultural memories alive. These characters are natural observers such as my friend... always looking, always willing to learn, always craving to teach.
Farmers know bees are important because of pollination, yet a few understand what pollination is. They do know that, when crop varieties mix because of pollinators, those products are not purchased by intermediaries or common consumers.	People in Anolaima drink guarapo since a long time. They used to keep it in "múcuras" (clay pots) or in these chocos. Chocos are the fruit of a cucurbit –presumably pollinated by bees- that is not grown in the region anymore. Biocultural erosion.

Human constructions are important for bees –and hence important contact zones in these socio-ecological systems	Many tree species in Anolaima, such as Casco 'e vaca (Bauhinia candicans), flower two times a year. Casco 'e vaca is visited by very diverse assemblages of bees including Centris, Tetragona, Trigona, Tetragonisca bees. This one is Centris erythrosara.
These ipomoea vines are resistant to roundup. Their flowers, the ones still open after herbicide application, are visited by solitary bees (Diadasia sp).	Bees may obtain some food, but also additional substances remaining in Ipomoea flowers (such as residues of pesticides applied to adjacent crops). These Diadasia bees are really fast but, when found on crop borders, are dizzy and have difficulties to fly.
Plots in which farmers grow transitory crops range from small (1600 m2) to big (3 Ha) in Anolaima. People use the strongest "bombs" in tomato and pea crops, which include biocides such as Furadan and Lorsban. These are forbidden plots for bees and are becoming popular in the region.	Herbs such as tabaquillo are good meals for bees. The one in the picture is an Exomalopsis. Herbs are usually ignored and unknown... they're just rastrojo (except for those plants with known medicinal properties)
Eulaema bees like to nest in ant nests. There are several entrances of big and small holes for the various visitors. This massive nest was removed a couple of months ago, after the establishment of a new road in this village.	Paratrigona in a rose flower
Halictids love amapola flowers. People love them as well.	Yet there're always enemies
More halictids

During the Corpus Christi farmers offer the fruits sown in their lands to thank God for the past harvest, and to ask for a prosperous new cycle. They build figures such as this butterfly with fruits and vegetables. Animal pollinators benefit the fruit production of choco (the butterfly head), squash, zapallo, citrus, and mango, among others fruits produced in this municipality.
Every "vereda" (village) builds one "arco" (figure) to participate in a competition to choose the best arco in the season.
	The best model ever :)
Plants producing citrus fruits and cubios (teeth) are benefited by animal pollinators for fruit production. Bees LOVE pollen from these palm flowers (horse "hair")
And then farmers disassemble fruit figures and sell the foods to tourists at very cheap prices. The 2015 harvest was negatively affected by El Niño related droughts. People do not want to lose the Corpus Christi tradition, so they buy food coming from other regions in Bogota to make fruit figures.

Marcela Cely Santos. Made by Wix.com.

Anolaima, the fruit capital of Colombia. This inscription reminds Anolaimans of their peasant identity and invites to embrace the land and culture with pride. Agriculture in Anolaima is eroding, just like this inscription.

Traditional peasants always knew and loved the rhythms and flow of nature. In this old room squash grows for the sake of its human and non human companions, such as pollinating bees.

The kitchen, a place where knowledge, practice and senses come together to prepare foods that nurture beings. In this moment I counted at least five foods produced with the help of an animal pollinator.

Food is provided, not only for humans. All is shared.

And care is provided, not only to humans.

Observers are all about curiosity: researchers. These caterpillars arrived on a tree and were kept until their metamorphosis was completed. Their care taker, a gentle and curious lady, got a bit disappointed the resulting moth was cryptic, yet she thought "it had some grace."

Most transitory crops in Anolaima are produced with the help of synthetic agrochemicals. Six year old children know names and uses of these products. Growing with potential poisons becomes normal from an early age.

RoundUp and Lorsban are required companions for some farmers. Some respected "urbanites" returning to work the land trust synthetic agrochemicals so, why wouldn't rural people use them?

Production may rise with agrochemical use. However, production is not guaranty of profitability. People can receive $50.000 COP per a bulto of guatilas, and the next week the same weight is paid for $5.000.

The land is so degraded in some areas and agricultural management is so aggressive that no agrochemical is able to fight (or "improve") nature anymore.

Despite the concerning path of agricultural modernity in Anolaima, some peasants resist change by embracing change and its chaotic beauty through tradition. This guatila plant was expected to produce small, white and smooth fruits. Pollinators did their mixing and people enjoy new flavors.

Some areas in the municipality are still well-protected: coffee lands. Yet coffee growing is less profitable than ever. Most people are cutting coffee plants down to sow transitory crops or to feed more cows.

Aggressive land uses leave their footprint at the landscape scale. Small traditional farms may be small spots in an ocean of land for recreation or for agroindustrial management.

In some areas not even water sources are protected, especially where cattle ranching is the most common land use.

Stingless bees may not sting but bite. Some beekeepers prefer to keep things under control and treat both, stinging and stingless bees in the same way –some caution is welcome.

Error and trial will take stingless beekeepers to the best hive model

Different generations of beekeepers and different tools to extract honey

Don Gustavo and some of the bees he keeps

Makers: drying pollen and wax

A restaurant for bees (the garden of a beekeeper)

Beekeepers (honeybee and stingless bee keepers) have this incredible knowledge. They know where to locate wild nests, how to pick bees in the air with their hands and somehow differentiate the so similar stingless bee species found in the region.

Strategies to protect bees from invaders include gates, traps and above all, observation.

The beautiful meliponario of the Luna family placed in a farm of honey and tradition.

Sporadically, visitors arrive to taste stingless-bee honey

Non-beekeepers do know about solitary bees when coexisting in human-made structures. A megachilid bee joined doña Martha in her kitchen. She knew about the nest and she had a hunch the bee had abandoned it.

Sometimes it's impossible to be away from bees, specially when they are gentle and sweet. Tetragonisca angustula nests in human-made walls. People just need to be careful not to wipe them down.

T. angustula also likes to nest in tree barks, and farmers are the best at noticing them

Euglossine bees like to join people in their homes too. I've found several euglossines nesting in blocks near peoples' bathrooms. People do not know they are bees, so sometimes they fight green visitors.

Omnidia robusta, the fly confounded with an euglossine bee.

Sarcophagidae flies... also confounded with bees

An euglossine condo, step 1

An euglossine condo, step 2

An euglossine condo, step 3: The future in the present

A closer look to the host (she and her offspring still live in the condo. The "human guardian" of the nest recently mentioned this colony is growing)

Another condo for Centris and Melitoma bees. The human owner of the house is a bit concerned these bees will tear down the wall.

Boca 'e sapo bees also build their nests in human constructions. These nests are made of mud, clay and resins thus they are heavy and may break people's walls.

If these bees have the chance, growing is the option. Many materials are welcome: teachings for bioconstruction.

On looking. Virginia Nazarea mentions there are always "irreverent" characters keeping biocultural memories alive. These characters are natural observers such as my friend... always looking, always willing to learn, always craving to teach.

Farmers know bees are important because of pollination, yet a few understand what pollination is. They do know that, when crop varieties mix because of pollinators, those products are not purchased by intermediaries or common consumers.

People in Anolaima drink guarapo since a long time. They used to keep it in "múcuras" (clay pots) or in these chocos. Chocos are the fruit of a cucurbit –presumably pollinated by bees- that is not grown in the region anymore. Biocultural erosion.

Human constructions are important for bees –and hence important contact zones in these socio-ecological systems

Many tree species in Anolaima, such as Casco 'e vaca (Bauhinia candicans), flower two times a year. Casco 'e vaca is visited by very diverse assemblages of bees including Centris, Tetragona, Trigona, Tetragonisca bees. This one is Centris erythrosara.

These ipomoea vines are resistant to roundup. Their flowers, the ones still open after herbicide application, are visited by solitary bees (Diadasia sp).

Bees may obtain some food, but also additional substances remaining in Ipomoea flowers (such as residues of pesticides applied to adjacent crops). These Diadasia bees are really fast but, when found on crop borders, are dizzy and have difficulties to fly.

Plots in which farmers grow transitory crops range from small (1600 m2) to big (3 Ha) in Anolaima. People use the strongest "bombs" in tomato and pea crops, which include biocides such as Furadan and Lorsban. These are forbidden plots for bees and are becoming popular in the region.

Herbs such as tabaquillo are good meals for bees. The one in the picture is an Exomalopsis. Herbs are usually ignored and unknown... they're just rastrojo (except for those plants with known medicinal properties)

Eulaema bees like to nest in ant nests. There are several entrances of big and small holes for the various visitors. This massive nest was removed a couple of months ago, after the establishment of a new road in this village.

Paratrigona in a rose flower

Halictids love amapola flowers. People love them as well.

Yet there're always enemies

More halictids

Every "vereda" (village) builds one "arco" (figure) to participate in a competition to choose the best arco in the season.

The best model ever :)

Plants producing citrus fruits and cubios (teeth) are benefited by animal pollinators for fruit production. Bees LOVE pollen from these palm flowers (horse "hair")

And then farmers disassemble fruit figures and sell the foods to tourists at very cheap prices. The 2015 harvest was negatively affected by El Niño related droughts. People do not want to lose the Corpus Christi tradition, so they buy food coming from other regions in Bogota to make fruit figures.