Why in the News?
Municipalities in Peru passed a landmark ordinance granting legal rights to Amazonian stingless bees, making them the first insects in the world to receive such recognition.
About Amazon’s Stingless Bees
Stingless bees belong to the Meliponini group and either lack stingers or have non functional stingers, making them harmless to humans. They are critical pollinators in tropical ecosystems.
Origin
- Among the oldest bee lineages, existing for nearly 80 million years
• Emerged during the age of dinosaurs
• About 500 species globally, nearly half in the Amazon
Habitat
- Tropical forests worldwide
• Highly abundant in the Amazon rainforest
• Peru hosts over 170 species
Key Ecological and Cultural Features
- Primary rainforest pollinators
• Pollinate over 80 percent of Amazonian plant species
• Support key global crops like coffee, cacao, avocado, blueberry
• Deeply embedded in Indigenous knowledge systems
• Culturally significant to communities such as Asháninka and Kukama-Kukamiria
Legal Rights for Stingless Bees
The ordinance recognises inherent rights, including
• Right to exist and flourish
• Right to maintain healthy populations
• Right to regenerate natural ecological cycles
• Right to live in pollution free habitats
• Right to legal representation when threatened
Significance
- Global legal first: First instance of insects granted legal rights
• Stronger conservation framework: Enables legal action against deforestation, pollution, and habitat loss
• Advances Rights of Nature doctrine: Moves from human centred environmental protection to ecosystem centred justice
| [2023] Which of the following organisms perform waggle dance for others of their kin to indicate the direction and the distance to a source of their food?
(a) Butterflies (b) Dragonflies (c) Honeybees (d) Wasps |
