Beeworks Brazil: Beehives for Forest Families

Greetings all,

Thank you once again for your donation to our bee education and sustainability project in Brazil.  We have been busy over the last few months building out the networks that will be critical to the continued growth of the project.  The bees for the Guapiruvu families have been reserved and will be delivered in a few months during the spring season, as the bees now are resting as it is winter here in Brazil.  Classes with mentors have been scheduled and the team is working to help the families with the documentation necessary to start their meliponarios, as in Brazil native bees are considered livestock and have certain rules and regulations that govern their transport, establishment, and use for food production.

Additionally, we hosted a visiting professor from Cardiff University, Dr. Fernando Loizides, who is working on developing virtual reality bee education resources for use in the UK and Brazil.  Together, we visited the Guapiruvu community to conduct scans of the environments and let the kids play with the technologies.  We also visited the Sítio Bela Vista Agroforest near Cananéia in the southeast of São Paulo state.  Bela Vista Agroforest hosts schools and farmers for educational visits and we were discussing future collaborations as our projects grow.

We are also happy to be hosting two students through the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science Young Scientist Program, Sarah (USA) and Enrico (Brazil), who are working together to prototype bee counting sensors and develop a citizen science app about bees.  More on that soon!

On July 16th, there will be a matching opportunity through GlobalGiving.  Donations to this project of $100 or more will be matched and help support this project for another year.  I hope you'll consider continuing your contributions!

With gratitude,

Lev

Links:

• 360 Video of Natural Tropical Beehive in Guapiruvu