Peruvian Stingless Bees Granted Legal Status

In a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest, a tiny pollinator has just gained something usually reserved for people and companies. 

Municipalities in Satipo and Nauta in Peru have approved ordinances that recognize native stingless bees and their habitat as legal subjects with rights to exist, to thrive, and to be defended in court. 

Stingless bees, also known as meliponine bees (Family: Apidae). Common genera and species include Melipona eburnea (toad's mouth bee), Scaptotrigona spp., Tetragonisca angustula, Trigona cilipes, and Geotrigona tellurica.

It is the first time anywhere in the world that an insect species receives this kind of legal status. 

These local rules sit on top of a 2024 reform passed by Congress of the Republic of Peru that brought stingless bees under formal state protection as native bees and as part of the country’s biological heritage. This is really important because these small, black bees that do not sting quietly support much of what ends up on kitchen tables. 

Researchers estimate that about half of the roughly 500 known stingless bee species live in the Amazon region, and that they help pollinate around eighty percent of tropical plant species, including cacao, coffee, avocados and many wild fruits. 

In Peru alone scientists have recorded at least 175 native stingless bee species, a number that likely undercounts the real diversity, which places the country among the world’s hotspots for these insects.

In practical terms, the Satipo and Nauta ordinances read almost like a small bill of rights for bees. The texts recognize a right to exist and prosper, to maintain healthy populations, to live in a clean and intact habitat with ecologically stable climate conditions, to regenerate natural cycles, and to receive legal representation if pollution, deforestation or new projects threaten their survival. 

 Any company, agency or individual that harms their colonies can now be sued on behalf of the bees, with courts required to consider not only human losses but damage to the species and the forest itself.

This change did not start in a legal office. It began when chemical biologist Rosa Vásquez Espinoza (right) and her team at Amazon Research Internacional were asked to analyze honey that Indigenous families were using as medicine during the worst months of the pandemic.

Their samples revealed hundreds of bioactive molecules with anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and even potential anti-cancer properties, confirming what local healers had said for generations. From there, researchers and Indigenous elders mapped colonies across large swaths of the forest, documented traditional meliponiculture, and showed how bee numbers dropped where old trees and diverse understory plants disappeared. 

For the Asháninka and Kukama-Kukamiria peoples, stingless bees are woven into stories, songs and ceremonies, not treated as simple livestock. As Asháninka leader Apu Cesar Ramos explains, within the stingless bee lives traditional knowledge handed down from grandparents and tied to the rainforest itself.

Legal experts at Earth Law Center helped turn that mixture of science and ancestral knowledge into rights-based language. Constanza Prieto describes the result as “a turning point in our relationship with nature” that makes stingless bees visible as “rights bearing subjects” instead of invisible service providers. 

The urgency is clear on the ground. Across the Amazon, stingless bees are under pressure from deforestation, land conversion for cattle and crops, heavy pesticide use, climate-stressed weather patterns and competition from Africanized honeybees that are more aggressive and can take over nest sites. Elders who once walked half an hour to find a hive now report walking for hours with no guarantee they will see one at all.

By recognizing bees as rights holders, Satipo and Nauta are required to move beyond speeches. The ordinances mandate concrete measures such as reforestation in degraded areas, strict control of pesticides and herbicides, restoration of native flora, climate adaptation plans and support for ongoing scientific monitoring. They also give communities a legal tool to challenge projects that could poison or displace colonies, from road building to new plantations. 

The ripple effect is already visible. An international petition backed by global advocacy group Avaaz has gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures that urge Peru to extend these protections nationwide, and groups in other countries are studying the model for their own wild pollinators. 

At the same time, scientists point out that safeguarding native bees also protects the wider Amazon, which stores tens of billions of tons of carbon and helps stabilize the global climate. 

For people far from the rainforest, this story ultimately circles back to daily life. The morning coffee, the chocolate bar after lunch, even that avocado toast all depend to a large extent on pollinators that seldom make the news. 

Giving legal standing to stingless bees will not, by itself, save the Amazon. It does, however, shift the legal spotlight toward the small workers that keep forests and food systems running, and invites other governments to ask a simple question. If an insect can have the right to exist, what else in nature deserves a legal voice.

China's CIPS Threatens USD

The Cross-Border Interbank Payments System (CIPS) has expanded across a hundred and eighty five countries, allowing international payments in Chinese yuan without using the US Dollar, according to data from the New Development Bank (NDB). 

CIPS was launched by China and managed by its central bank as “a real alternative for global trade settlements”. At the Shanghai Oil and Gas Exchange, liquefied natural gas contracts are now priced for and paid in yuan. Same thing with soybeans from the Shenzhen Qianhai Joint Trading Center. 

China has reportedly signed 40 settlement agreements with other countries, with total settlements through CIPS hitting 52 trillion yuan earlier this year, equal to 58% of China’s total cross-border transactions, a figure that tops the Dollar in some measures. And trade between China and Russia has been settled in local currencies for three straight years, covering 95% of their total trade volume. 

Still, not every country has joined the yuan system. Europe, North America, and Australia have kept their distance, while developing economies in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe are using CIPS more frequently, especially for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) loan repayments. 

And BRICS nations are already developing their own proposed payment system, referred to as BRICS Pay – a prototype was demonstrated in Moscow in October 2024 but the operational target date is supposedly set to around 2030 – which would also facilitate local currency transactions and reduce dependence on the existing global financial system. 

Methinks, it's just a matter of time before we see the end of Dollar dominance. And it's about time too.

In the meantime, the NDB are diversifying their financing. Since 2015, the NDB have issued loans in yuan and rand. They now plan to roll out rupee-denominated bonds by 2026, targeting between $300 million and $500 million in three- to five-year tranches. This fits the bloc’s larger plan to reduce dependence on the Dollar and rely on member-state currencies instead.

The above graphic shows the countries with the most forest loss since 2015, based on data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. 

Since 2015, the world has lost an average of 10.9 million hectares (ha) of forest each year. 

Deforestation has been most severe in South America and Africa, largely driven by agricultural production. In Brazil, for example, cattle ranching and pasture expansion have played a major role in clearcutting across the Amazon. 

While deforestation rates have slowed, the scale of loss is more than the next nine countries combined. More promisingly, however, Brazil’s president Lula da Silva plans to bring deforestation to zero by 2030. The country is home to 486 million ha of forest, the second-highest in the world.

China Shows the Way in Restoring Rare and Endangered Flora and Fauna

May 22 marks the International Day for Biological Diversity – and China is showing the way in restoring rare and endangered flora and fauna including: 

• 200+ species of rare and endangered wild animals in China have entered a phase of restorative growth, and 100+ endangered wild plant species received rescue protection; 
• Over 70 percent of the wild giant panda population has been effectively protected; 
• The number of Tibetan antelopes has recovered from fewer than 20,000 in the early 1980s to more than 70,000.

And in case you didn't know...

A Sign of the Times

A sign of the times.

 

The APEC Peru 2024, the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum of their leaders was held November 15-16 in Lima, Peru's capital. 

 

As is the practice, the attendees posed for a group photo on Saturday. China’s Xi Jinping was in front and center. Even Hong Kong Chief Executive, John Lee Ka-chiu got to stand in the front row, next to the host, Peruvian President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra. 

 

And Malaysia's Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim is also in the front row. 

Now, find where the US president is standing.

 

In fact, the others had to wait for five awkward minutes before a seemingly dazed Joe Biden emerged and took his place in the far back corner, standing between Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Vietnam's President Luong Cuong. Biden even briefly reached for Shinawatra’s hand to steady himself. (I bet if he had the time, he would have wanted to smell her hair too).

 

Note: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was absent from the photo-op.

Attack of the Leafcutters

The ants go munching one-by-one – hurrah, hurrah!

 

Thought ants raiding your picnic was annoying? Paul Rosolie (left), a US conservationist and explorer of the Amazons, captured the spine-tingling moment when giant ants dismantled his tent during a hellacious night in the jungle.

 

“One of the worst episodes yet of why you think you want my job but definitely don’t”, the adventurer captioned the clip of the nightmarish infestation, which occurred while he was camping out in the Peruvian Amazon. “The walls have been breached and I was just stuck inside a multi-species festival of insect life”.

 

“It was like the battle of Helm’s deep. I got no sleep”, added Rosolie, who frequently shares his Amazonian exploits with his 1.1 million Instagram followers.

 

This time, instead of leaves, the opportunistic insects decided to core out giant swatches of material from Roselie’s domicile and then cart them off, per the video:

 

 

“There’s about 10 million leafcutter ants outside of this tent”, lamented the author. “And all they are doing is carving leaf-sized holes out of my tent. They are carrying away the nylon into the night”.

 

If this incursion wasn’t bad enough, the giant holes allowed bigger creepy crawlies to infiltrate the abode like an entomological siege.

 

“They’re opening up holes big enough to put my fist through, which means that everything else in the Amazon is coming into my tent”, the content creator said.

 

Other many-legged interlopers, per the Indiana Jones-evoking clip, included mosquitos, centipedes and even a dinner plate-sized tarantula that was shown clambering next to Rosolie’s head as he looked on in dismay.

 

“This is what camping in the wild is”, he said. “Sometimes you put your tent in the wrong place and the leafcutter ants and the gods of the jungle decide it’s going to be the worst night ever”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leafcutter ants, any of nearly 50 species of ants abundant in the American tropics, easily recognized by their foraging columns composed of hundreds or thousands of ants carrying small pieces of leaves. These moving trails of cut foliage often stretch over 30 meters (100 feet) across the forest floor and up and down the trunks of canopy trees. Leafcutter ants are members of the genera Atta (15 species) and Acromyrmex (around 33 species), both of which are included in the fungus-growing ant tribe Attini.

 

FYI, Rosolie has spent nearly 20 years campaigning to protect threatened ecosystems around the globe. He is also the founder of Junglekeepers, an organization dedicated to preserving the Peruvian Amazon amid threats from gold mining, logging and poaching.

Durians To Blame For Making Coffee More Expensive

How much is too much for a caffeine fix?

 

Prices like £5 in London or $7 in New York for a cup of coffee may be unthinkable for some – but could soon become a reality thanks to a "perfect storm" of economic and environmental factors in the world's top coffee-producing regions.

 

The cost of unroasted beans traded in global markets is now at a "historically high level", says analyst Judy Ganes. And experts blame a mix of troubled crops, market forces, depleted stockpiles – and the world’s smelliest fruit.

 

So how did we get here, and just how much will it impact your morning latte?

 

In 2021, a freak frost wiped out coffee crops in Brazil, the world's largest producer of Arabica beans – those commonly used in barista-made coffee. This bean shortfall meant buyers turned to countries like Vietnam, the primary producer of Robusta beans, that are typically used in instant blends. But farmers there faced the region’s worst drought in nearly a decade. 

 

Climate change has been affecting the development of coffee plants (Genus: Coffea; family: Rubiaceae), according to Will Frith, a coffee consultant based in Ho Chi Minh City, in turn impacting bean yields. And then Vietnamese farmers pivoted to the durian (Genus: Durio).

 

The fruit is proving popular in China and is in high demand. And so, Vietnamese farmers are replacing their coffee crops with durian to cash in on this emerging market. In fact, Vietnam's durian market share in China almost doubled between 2023 and 2024, and some estimate the crop is five times more lucrative than coffee.

 

"There’s a history of growers in Vietnam being fickle in response to market price fluctuations, over-committing, and then flooding the market with quantities of their new crop", Frith says. As they flooded China with durians, Robusta coffee exports were down 50% in June compared to the previous June, and stocks were now "near depleted", according to the International Coffee Organisation.

 

Exporters in Colombia, Ethiopia, Peru and Uganda have stepped up, but have not produced enough to ease a tight market.

 

"Right at [the] time when things started to rev up for demand of Robusta, is right when the world was scrambling for more supply", explains Ganes. This means Robusta and Arabica beans are now trading at near-record highs on commodity markets.

 

But industry figures caution that a high market price for coffee may not necessarily translate into higher retail prices.

 

Felipe Barretto Croce, CEO of FAFCoffees in Brazil, agrees that consumers are "feeling the pinch" as consumer prices have risen. But he argues that is "mostly due to inflationary costs in general", such as rent and labor, rather than the cost of beans. 

 

Consultancy Allegra Strategies estimate beans contribute less than 10% of the price of a cup of coffee. "Coffee is still very cheap, as a luxury good, if you make it at home".

 

Besides, the cost of lower-quality beans rising means high-quality coffee may now be seen as better value. "If you go into a specialty coffee shop in London and get a coffee, versus a coffee in Costa Coffee, the difference [in price] between that cup and the specialty coffee is much smaller than it used to be".

 

From what I've read, don't expect price relief anytime soon. It is already said that in the long term, climate change already poses serious challenges for the global coffee industry.

 

A 2022 study "Expected global suitability of coffee, cashew and avocado due to climate change" by Roman Grüter et al, affiliated with the Institute of Natural Resource Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Wädenswil, Switzerland and published in Plos One had concluded that even if we drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the area most highly suited for growing coffee could decline by 50% by 2050.

 

One measure to future-proof the industry that has the support of Croce is a "green premium" – a small tax levied on coffee given to farmers to invest in regenerative agricultural practices, which help protect and sustain the viability of farmlands.

 

So while the durian is partly responsible for price rises now – a changing climate may ultimately strain the affordability of coffee in the years to come.

 

In Ecuadoran Amazon, Butterflies Are a Gauge of Climate Change

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biologists on a trail in the Ecuadoran Amazon hold their breath as they distribute a foul-smelling delicacy to lure butterflies, critical pollinators increasingly threatened by climate change. 

 

A team has hung 32 traps made of green nets, each baited with rotting fish and fermented bananas. They are meant to blend in with the forest canopy. Their pungent odor clearly does not. 

 

Since last August, a team of biologists and park rangers has been monitoring butterfly numbers in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (in Spanish: Reserva de Producción Faunística Cuyabeno), a park in the northeast area of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest is famed for their abundant flora and fauna. 

 

They catch and document the colorful insects, releasing most with an identifying mark on their wings. Some of them, possibly from previously unknown species, are kept for further study. The results of the team’s work, however, have been discouraging. 

 

Butterflies are “bioindicators”, living organisms whose well-being provides a measure of the health of their surrounding ecosystem, and their numbers are decreasing, biologist Maria Fernanda Checa told AFP. While the number of species may not have declined by more than 10 percent, in terms of absolute butterfly numbers “the decrease is very significant... maybe 40/50 percent”, she said. “It is something that alarms us”.

 

Under expedition leader Elisa Levy, a team checks the nets for captured butterflies. They hold the insects delicately by their tiny abdomens and manipulate their legs and wings with tweezers. 

 

Some are bright red and blue, others have what resemble zebra stripes. Some are see-through, like glass. About three-quarters of fruit- or seed-producing crops for human consumption depend on pollinators, which provide a free service worth billions of dollars. 

 

The UN have warned that 40 percent of invertebrate pollinators – particularly bees and butterflies – risk global extinction, posing certain risks to humanity itself. 

 

Butterflies, said Checa, are “very sensitive, even to small changes in the ecosystem” throughout their short lifespan from egg to caterpillar to reproductive adult. Levy explained that tropical plants – unlike ones in regions with distinct seasons – are not accustomed to extreme weather variations. If they do not adapt to a fast-changing climate, these plants could be lost, along with the butterfly larvae that feed on them.

 

Ecuador, relatively small but extremely biodiverse, hosts about 4,000 butterfly species – nearly as many as its much larger neighbors Peru and Colombia. Yet in places like the Yasuni National Park, which neighbors Cuyabeno, “the rate of species discovery is slower than the rate of extinction”, said Checa. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liverpool brushed off their European disappointment to move up to second in the Premier League – level on points with table-topping Arsenal – after a 3-1 win against Fulham yesterday.

 

The Reds dominated possession but struggled to turn their dominance into goals – until Trent Alexander-Arnold stepped up and curled a glorious free-kick in the 32nd minute. The Cottagers leveled before the break but Ryan Gravenberch's perfectly-measured 20-yard effort flew in off the post to restore the Reds' advantage.

 

Diogo Jota put the contest to bed in the 72nd minute, racing onto Cody Gakpo's pass to fire low into the bottom right-hand corner. 

 

Five more games to go.

Peru's 2,000-year-old Rock Carvings

More than 2,000 years ago, the Tukano people of the Colombian Amazon may have documented the soundtracks to their hallucinogenic experiences in drawings on volcanic boulders. 

 

Carved into rocks at the Toro Muerto site in Peru's Castilla province, where there exists an enormous accumulation of petroglyphs, the dancing figures are surrounded by shapes and patterns that may represent the music sung by the Shamans during Ayahuasca*-fueled encounters with gods and ancestors. 

 

"The cosmos constituted the space that the shaman explored in his visionary journey, while the wavy and zigzag lines could have been visualizations both of the songs taking him to that parallel reality as well as the sensation of being in that other world", wrote Polish archaeologists, Andrzej Rozwadowski of Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań and Janusz Z Wołoszyn, University of Warsaw, Warsaw in a scientific paper "Dances with Zigzags in Toro Muerto, Peru: Geometric Petroglyphs as (Possible) Embodiments of Songs", published April 03, 2024.

*[Ayahuasca (pronounced 'eye-ah-WAH-ska') – also known as the tea, the vine, and la purga – is a plant decoction made from at least two substances, one of which is Banisteriopsis caapi, which is a rainforest vine, and usually it involves mixing Psychotria viridis, which is a small bush, and each plant contains different chemicals that work together, although other plants and ingredients can be added as well, known to have hallucinogenic properties. 

 

Taking Ayahuasca leads to an altered state of consciousness that can include hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, and euphoria. This brew was used for spiritual and religious purposes by ancient Amazonian tribes and today, it has become popular around the world, among those who seek a way to open their minds, heal from past traumas, or simply experience an Ayahuasca journey].

Tourists Outnumber Locals Five to One In This Destination

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tourists to the Galapagos Islands will be asked to pay twice as much in entry fees from this year amid concerns that a rise in visitor numbers is putting pressure on the ecologically sensitive destination. 

 

Ecuador’s Ministry of Tourism have announced the new fees, which will take effect on August 01, 2024. The entry fee will go from $100 to $200 for nationals of almost all countries, except for other members of the South American trade bloc Mercosur, which includes Argentina, Brazil, and Peru. Mercosur members will now have to pay $100 per person, up from $50. Children under age two can visit for free, regardless of nationality. This is the first increase in Galapagos entry fees since 1998. 

 

“The Galapagos Islands are not only a national treasure but a global one. It is our collective responsibility to protect and preserve this unparalleled ecosystem for future generations”, Niels Olsen (left), Ecuador’s tourism minister, said in a statement shared with  the Galapagos Conservation Trust. 

 

Olsen added that the additional money will go toward conservation efforts for the islands, which are 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) off the coast of mainland Ecuador. 

 

The Galapagos are a UNESCO World Heritage site comprised of more than 100 islands. The islands, nicknamed a “living museum”, are home to many rare or endangered plants and animals. 

 

Only some 30,000 people live on one of the Galapagos islands, but about 170,000 tourists visit in a typical year. 

 

The Galapagos Conservation Trust, a UK-registered charity focused on promoting conservation and sustainability on the islands, have warned of ecological consequences from rising visitor numbers. 

 

“Recent years have seen worrying growth in the number of visitors to the Islands, driven by a sharp increase in land-based tourism”, they said on their website. “This is pushing waste management systems to the limit, exacerbating water and food insecurity, and increasing the threat of devastating invasive species being introduced to the Islands”. 

 

Celtic reclaimed top spot in the Scottish Premiership yesterday when they beat St Johnstone 3-1.

 

A fortieth-minute header by Kyogo Furuhashi put the former ahead before the Japanese international turned provider for Nicolas Kuhn in the forty-sixth minute. Substitute James Forrest made it three for Celtic before Saints netted a consolation late on in the 81st minute.

 

 

New Lizard Species Named After Iron Maiden Frontman

It is claimed that among taxonomists and museum curators who appreciate rock music, Iron Maiden are a hot favorite. 

 

And so, when a new species of wood lizard has been found in the Cordillera de Colán mountain range 460 miles north of Lima, Peru, the biologists involved in finding the reptile decided to name it after Bruce Dickinson. 

 

Dr. Alessandro Catenazzi, a Peruvian involved in the discovery of Enyalioides dickinsoni – or in English, Dickinson's wood lizard – explains: "Bruce Dickinson is not only a legend in the world of heavy metal, but also an inspiration to many due to his diverse talents and accomplishments". 

 

According to the January 31, 2024's edition of the Journal of Vertebrate Biology, the specific name is a noun in the genitive form and is a patronymic, honoring Paul Bruce Dickinson (right), who is best known as the lead singer of the legendary heavy metal band Iron Maiden, though he is also a music producer, entrepreneur, competitive fencer, novelist, aviator, broadcaster and the recipient of many honorary degrees and awards. In 2016, he flew a loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta, that washed up on a Jersey beach to the Canary Islands in his private plane, thus contributing to the awareness and protection of this vulnerable species.

Countries as Supervillains

Start from the premise that there's no such thing as a guiltless country. 

 

We must admit that as human beings, we're some of the foulest and most violent specimens roaming the surface of the Earth. History is mostly filled with villains and monsters – and the truth is that no country is a goody two shoes. 

 

If the world were a wrestling promotion, everyone would be a heel. And so, Lucas Freitas decided to make AI art that personified countries as supervillains. 

 

Here’s a selection: