Do emotions influence the motivations and preferences of keepers of stingless bees?

Abstract

BackgroundAccording to the biophilia hypothesis, an emotional affiliation with nature has been inherited during human biocultural evolution. Research on beekeeping can contribute to the scientific understanding of the influence of emotions in the human-nature relationship, since this activity provides concrete experiences of beneficial interaction between the human being and the environment by stimulating conservation-friendly values among practitioners. In this study, we investigated motivations and preferences driving beekeepers’ choices. We hypothesized that emotional criteria would be the main motivators in choosing to include beekeeping into small-scale farming systems. We also assumed that, once beekeeping has been chosen, the preference among species of bees for raising would also be influenced mainly by emotional criteria.MethodsData were collected from free lists and semi-structured interviews with 52 keepers of stingless bees from Sítio Xixá in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. The content analysis technique was used to analyze data from interviews. The underlying criteria for motivation and preference quoted in the free lists were analyzed with Smith’s Salience Index.ResultsEmotional and esthetic criteria were the most salient motivations for choosing beekeeping as one of the activities in small-scale farming systems. On the other hand, honey productivity and bee behavior were the most salient criteria for the preference for certain bee species to be kept.ConclusionsEmotional criterion had an especially notable influence on the motives for practicing beekeeping, but not on the preference of species to be raised. This demonstrates that the scenario under study represents a panorama of multiple influences in which emotions are one, but not the only, important component. Finally, our results indicate that the emotional domain should be taken into account in environmental education efforts and in the planning of bee management and nature conservation policies.

Mapeamento dos meliponários educativos da região Nordestina: no caminho da conservação das abelhas nativas

“…Embora a criação de abelhas seja uma importante atividade econômica no município, as pessoas desconhecem a importância ecológica desses insetos e pouco sabem sobre as abelhas nativas. Carvalho et al (2018) apontam que o domínio emocional deve ser levado em consideração nos esforços de educação ambiental e no planejamento de políticas de manejo das abelhas e de conservação. Assim, pode-se inferir que a motivação dos coordenadores em seguir com seus projetos mesmo diante da dificuldade financeira, esteja relacionada à preocupação com a conservação das abelhas e dos ecossistemas.…”

“…Por outro lado, no Brasil, as estratégias para a conservação envolvem muitas ações, como os estudos taxonômicos que permitem conhecer as abelhas ocorrentes no país (Lima & Silvestre, 2017), o estabelecimento de legislações específicas (Koser et al, 2020), incentivos à criação das abelhas nativas (meliponicultura) (Carvalho et al, 2018) e a educação ambiental (Gomes et al, 2019;Bendini et al, 2020).…”

Experimental removal of invasive Africanized honey bees increased breeding population size of the endangered Lear's macaw

“…51 It is feared that people are losing the tradition and knowledge of harvesting honey from melipona as they switch to collecting honey from the more abundant, non-native Africanized honey bee. 52 Moreover, the increase in the macaw population facilitated by the elimination of Africanized honey bees would also help to recover macaw's ecological functions, particularly seed dispersal for a variety of plant species including the licuri palm Syagrus coronata, 53 which has an important ecological and socioeconomic role in Caatinga. 54 Therefore, elimination of Africanized honey bees may also contribute to conservation of both biodiversity and cultural heritage in this threatened biome.…”

La Etnobiología en Áreas Rurales Y Su Aporte a La Lucha Para Desentrañar Sesgos Patriarcales

“…Dado que la reivindicación ecofeminista busca recuperar, tanto para hombres y mujeres, el sentido de una emotividad perdida frente a la mayor valorización de lo racional y material, es aquí donde los trabajos cobran una vital importancia en mostrar cómo los vínculos con la Naturaleza están nutridos de sentimientos y emociones en ambos géneros. Esto se ha visto reflejado en estudios acerca de los vínculos con animales (NOLAN et al, 2001;BARRERA-BASSOLS y TOLEDO, 2005;VARGAS-CLAVIJO et al, 2010;HERRMANN et al, 2013;CARVALHO et al, 2018) pero también con las plantas (HUNN, 2014;VÁRI et al, 2020). Vári et al (2020) han comparado entre hombres y mujeres la citación de valores emocionales en la recolección de plantas medicinales y silvestres, y evidenciaron que ese aspecto es igualmente importante en ambos géneros, desmitificando miradas sexistas sobre la emoción.…”