Beekeeping with Indigenous People in the Amazon

We have some very exciting news to share about the Maijuna indigenous group of the Peruvian Amazon. After a lot of hard work by the Maijuna federation, the OnePlanet team in Peru, and other allies on-the-ground, individuals in all four of the Maijuna communities have now been vaccinated against COVID-19! In fact, the Maijuna are one of the first indigenous groups vaccinated in the Peruvian Amazon, which is a testament to all the hard work that was put into this effort.

Some details about how we got here: Since the onset of the global pandemic, COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on indigenous peoples throughout the Amazon. When the pandemic first struck Peru, we shifted our organizational mission and workplan to focus on pandemic prevention and relief and provided several rounds of support to the Maijuna. This included lifesaving medicines, personal protective equipment (PPE), educational materials, food, and essential supplies. This phase of our work was supported by very generous donations by the Grand Circle Foundation, Elizabeth Wakeman Henderson Charitable Foundation, Morpho Institute, and individual donors like you.

More recently, we have focused our efforts on supporting the Maijuna federation in their quest to vaccinate their community members from COVID-19 to help alleviate the danger and suffering experienced during this global pandemic. This included working closely with not only the Maijuna federation but the regional indigenous federation (ORPIO) and the Peruvian ministries of culture and health. We provided key organizational and financial support to 1) bring Maijuna leaders to the city of Iquitos (the capital of this region) to advocate on behalf of their communities, 2) conduct a vaccine education and consent campaign in the Maijuna communities, and 3) carryout a comprehensive vaccination drive. This phase of our work was supported by very generous donations from the Independent Presbyterian Church Foundation (IPCF) and individuals like you.

What this all means for our community-based work with the Maijuna: Now that eligible Maijuna community members (and the OnePlanet team) have been vaccinated, we can now begin to ramp up our work more safely in the Maijuna communities. As I write this, our team is on their way to Maijuna lands to continue work on our community-based stingless beekeeping project and to buy honey from Maijuna beekeepers providing them with much needed sustainable income.

While more work will need to be done in the Maijuna communities once vaccines are open to Maijuna children, let’s collectively celebrate the milestone and successes achieved. No Maijuna individuals have perished from COVID-19 to date, which is a testament to the success of the prevention and relief efforts that we have implemented together with the Maijuna and other allies.

We will continue to keep you updated on our work with the Maijuna in the coming months. Thank you in advance for your ongoing interest and support.

Thanks, and stay safe and healthy!

As we reach the mid-way point of 2021, we here at OnePlanet have been hard at work helping to support and empower the Maijuna indigenous group of the Peruvian Amazon in their push for more sustainable and healthy communities. Although the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to make our work challenging, some recent highlights include:

1. COVID-19 Support: Since the onset of COVID-19, we have had to constantly shift and adapt our organizational mission and workplan. In 2020, we shifted our focus to pandemic prevention and relief and since then we have provided several rounds of support to the Maijuna communities. The latest round of direct support provided to the communities was in March, when this part of the Peruvian Amazon was in the grips of a crushing second wave of COVID-19 infections. This included sending the Maijuna lifesaving medicines, medical supplies, and personal protective equipment (PPE) for use in their communities. More recently, we have been helping to support the work of ORPIO (the regional indigenous federation) as well as the Ministries of Culture and Health in the development of plans to vaccinate indigenous peoples in the region. We are fully committed to supporting this historic process in whatever way possible, given how critical it is to the health and wellbeing of the Maijuna and other vulnerable indigenous groups of the Peruvian Amazon.

2. Stingless Beekeeping Project: The average Maijuna family survives on less than $2 per day and our community-based stingless beekeeping project is helping to boost their income and quality of life in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Pre-COVID, Maijuna beekeepers were selling honey at a premium price to visitors of a nearby ecotourism lodge. Since the start of the pandemic, this ecotourism lodge has been shut down resulting in a loss of market access and declining sales for the Maijuna beekeepers. To help mitigate these losses, our team has been working on developing a new business plan to reflect the reality that we are living in. A focus of this work is opening up new markets at premium pricing for the sale of Maijuna stingless bee honey in the city of Iquitos. This work is ongoing but we are happy to report that we are making solid progress.

3. Maijuna Federation Support: We have continued to provide critical financial and organizational support to help empower the Maijuna indigenous federation in their fight for the conservation of their ancestral lands, cultural survival, and the health and well-being of their communities. Over the past several months, this has included providing technical assistance and expertise to the Maijuna as they interfaced with governmental and non-governmental organizations, among many other things. Currently, we are also helping them to safely plan a meeting of their federation board of directors. This multi-day meeting will open a crucial space for their federation leaders to plan, coordinate, and carry out actions related to the protection of their ancestral lands as well as the health and wellbeing of their communities.

We are more committed than ever to help support and empower the Maijuna in their fight to protect their ancestral lands, communities, and traditional culture for future generations. We will keep you updated on our work with the Maijuna in the coming months. Thank you in advance for your ongoing interest and support.

Thanks, and stay safe and healthy!