More Than Honey: How Beekeeping Is Building Sustainable Futures in Guatemala

World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20 as a reminder of the vital role that bees play in our ecosystems and food systems. But beyond being important pollinators, bees can also be the key to economic opportunities for communities. That’s what Pueblo a Pueblo is hoping to achieve through our sustainable livelihoods initiative: using beekeeping as a tool to help community members earn fair wages, in addition to highlighting the importance of bees in our ecosystem.

Pueblo a Pueblo’s honeybees hard at work

From curiosity to conservation

Hony, Pueblo a Pueblo’s sustainable livelihoods coordinator, has been working with bees for nearly a decade. Like many others, he got into beekeeping out of curiosity and to produce honey for himself. But over time, Hony has come to realize that bees are more than just honey producers - they are essential actors in ecosystem health. 

“Bees are not synonymous with honey,” says Hony, echoing the words of his former teacher. “The bee is not only a honey producer, but an important living being that helps us.” By collecting pollen, Hony says, bees perform an important function in protecting ecosystems. This ultimately benefits us in multiple ways as well.

This belief is put into action through his work at Pueblo a Pueblo. Through the sustainable livelihoods initiative, Hony works to provide a fair source of income for local beekeepers while also conserving the environment.

To achieve this, the first step is to equip local beekeepers with training and expert knowledge to improve their processes. Next, Hony hopes to take advantage of the diverse products that bees create in addition to honey, which are often overlooked. These include beeswax, propolis (bee glue), and royal jelly, which can be further processed for human use.

Final products are sold through the Bee Strong store—an outlet created by Pueblo a Pueblo to ensure producers are paid fairly for their work. Receiving just payment allows beekeepers to continue their work, which in turn also benefits the environment.

“Perhaps [the beekeepers] aren't aware right now that their work goes far beyond just producing honey, but also goes towards supporting pollination and preserving the entire environment,” says Hony.

Celebrating all bees on World Bee Day

This year for World Bee Day, Pueblo a Pueblo is partnering with a stingless bee sanctuary, also known as a meliponario,, in the nearby town of San Lucas Tolimán. 

Stingless bees make up the majority of the bee species native to Guatemala, including the local region. And such native bees are key to pollinating local plant species, having evolved alongside them.

Through this event, local schoolchildren will have a chance to interact with native stingless bees, learn about native species, and understand why all bees need to be protected. This is especially important as native bees are quickly becoming lost.

“Many native bees produce smaller amounts of honey but with much higher nutritional properties [than the common honeybee]”, explains Hony.

And then there are also solitary bees, which make up over 90% of bee species.

“These [solitary] bees, since they don't produce honey, aren't as well-known. But they are vital for biodiversity and ecosystem conservation because they pollinate a lot of plants that honeybees often can't.”

Raising awareness among future generations about the role that all bees play is key to protecting both pollinators and the ecosystems they sustain.

Building a Sustainable Future

World Bee Day is more than just a day to celebrate bees – it’s also about taking action.

At Pueblo a Pueblo, bee conservation goes hand in hand with economic justice. By training beekeepers, supporting fair trade through our Bee Strong store, and raising awareness in communities, we’re building a future where both people and pollinators thrive.

But we can’t do this work without you. Please consider supporting our initiatives by making a donation.

Creating a community learning center for sustainable agriculture in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala

As Earth month comes to an end, we’re happy to announce a new initiative that Pueblo a Pueblo is working on: creating a learning center to teach sustainable agricultural methods to the local community. Monthly workshops will take place in our community garden, with the aim to empower the next generation to create sustainable food systems.

Here’s why sustainable agriculture is important, and how we help the local community in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala create more sustainable food systems.

Pueblo a Pueblo’s community garden, where our educational workshops will be held

What is sustainable agriculture, and why is it important?

Modern agriculture is often associated with deforestation, loss of biodiversity, habitat loss, and environmental degradation through the use of chemicals. Sustainable agriculture helps mitigate these problems by feeding the community while also protecting the environment. The goal is to create a balance between environmental protection and community needs.

Traditional agriculture often results in the removal of native plants, particularly plants that don’t have a use for humans, to make room for food crops. However, in the absence of such plants, native fauna may no longer have a food source and become vulnerable to endangerment. To resolve this issue, sustainable agriculture encourages a balance between native plants and food crops. 

Such biodiversity also creates natural resistance to pests, enabling pesticide-free farming. In addition, sustainable farming employs the use of organic fertilizers made from compost, as opposed to chemical fertilizers that harm the soil and water quality.

Together, these practices help create a healthier environment and a more resilient food system, providing food security for generations to come.

How our community garden helps build a healthier environment and society

The original function of our community garden was to provide access to affordable, nutritious food for marginalized communities. However, this project unfortunately came to a halt due to the COVID pandemic. Now, we hope to transform our garden into an educational tool to teach the community the skills and knowledge needed to create their own sustainable food systems.

Alternating groups of our scholarship students come by our garden every day to take care of the plants using organic farming methods. This includes watering as needed, letting native plants grow between crop fields, and using organic fertilizer produced through composting. The students are instructed by professor Jorge Letona, a local teacher that has dedicated his life to studying and teaching sustainable agriculture. 

Through their gardening responsibilities, our young beneficiaries learn practical skills for sustainable agriculture; and whatever harvest our garden produces is given back to the students and their families.

The impact of our sustainable, biodiverse garden can be seen immediately: often, wild native bees - called melipona - can be seen in our garden feeding on the native plants scattered throughout. Their presence is evidence of a healthy, balanced ecosystem.

Educational workshops: Empowering the community and preserving ancestral knowledge

This year, we will launch monthly workshops to teach the community principles of sustainable agriculture. Participants will learn practical organic farming methods, as well as the importance of sustainable practices.

In addition, we hope to protect and promote ancestral knowledge of native medicinal plants. These plants, long used by the local Maya population as natural remedies, are now at risk of being forgotten. This is due to the rise in modern pharmacies and the lack of written documentation about these plants, as traditional knowledge has historically been passed down orally. By cultivating native medicinal plants in our garden and teaching their uses, we hope to continue to pass on knowledge about these holistic medicines.

All in all, our goal is to transform our garden into a community learning center, where experts and community members can hold workshops and educational events. Our hope is to empower the community to create a healthier environment and more sustainable food system, while ensuring that traditional knowledge lives on.

Support our work in creating sustainable food systems in Santiago Atitlán

In order to better serve our community, we need your help. At this point, our garden project is still small and just beginning. Your donation helps us scale our operations for a bigger impact and continue our work for the long term.

Please consider showing your support by donating to our funds, or sharing our work with people you know.

We are immensely grateful for your help!

What International Women’s Day means to Tz’utujil women

In Guatemala, a historically patriarchal country, machismo - the idea of exaggerated masculinity and male dominance - unfortunately remains deeply entrenched into the culture. According to the United Nations’ Gender Inequality Index, Guatemala experiences among the highest rates of gender inequality in Latin America.

Pueblo a Pueblo spoke with some of the women that we work to support in order to hear their stories and experiences about womanhood in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala.

“For me, being a woman is being life, which deserves respect,” says Lucia Xicay from Panabaj. Lucia Xicay is a beneficiary of Pueblo a Pueblo’s maternal and child health program.

“But as women, we face many difficulties. For example, in the process of pregnancy, we women face many difficult situations, such as miscarriages or childbirth with complications that affect our lives and those of our loved ones.”

Indigenous women in Guatemala are particularly affected by the country’s poor healthcare system: even though they represent half the country’s reproductive age women, indigenous women experience 71% of all maternal deaths. Indigenous women are also more likely to have complications in childbirth and poor access to nutrition compared to non-indigenous women.

Lucia has better hopes for women of the next generation. “I hope that in the future, girls and young women of today continue studying, achieving their goals and not going through the situations that I went through during my pregnancy.”

Next, we visited Concepción Pospoy Ramírez, a 19-year-old Pueblo a Pueblo scholarship recipient.

Concepción is currently studying accounting with a focus on computing. In light of the challenges facing women who often have to take on many burdens at once, she feels particularly inspired by her neighbor.

“Despite being a mother, she has not stopped fighting for her dreams and goals. She continues to study, work and strive to achieve her goals, which shows me that, despite the difficulties, women can achieve and get what they want.“

Indigenous women in Guatemala are the most disadvantaged when it comes to access to education. In turn, this also leads to wider wage disparities for indigenous women compared to their peers. The problem is exacerbated with the domestic violence women often face at home, further impeding their ability to seek education.

Nevertheless, Concepción is optimistic about the challenges women face.

“Being a woman is not easy since we face many difficulties in life. But the ability to overcome everything makes us even more special.”

Dina Morales, 23, has a lot to say about overcoming difficulties. A first-time mother, she currently supports her family by selling ices on the street.

“One of the difficulties I have gone through is the violence I suffered. I worked hard to overcome that situation which weighed on my mind from the age of 8 to 17. It is a trauma that got to the point where I wanted to die.”

Unfortunately, women continue to suffer high rates of domestic violence in Guatemala – and indigenous women are the least likely to seek help or tell anyone about the abuse they face.

Nursing her 1-month old baby, Dina spoke of the suffering her mother had fought against. But in the midst of the suffering, she continued to encourage Dina that anything is possible. “She fought with me, supported me with my studies, and never said no. Instead, she always told me, ‘You can do it.’”

Now, Dina says, she hopes to do the same for her daughter.

Asked what advice she would give to others, she responded that women should above all have self-love and confidence in their abilities.

“If we do not have self-esteem, we let other people tell us that we are less or that they are more powerful than us.”

Concepción had similar advice to give to women. “We women are very important and valuable, so we should not let others make us feel less or let them decide for us, since we also have a voice and a vote. We have the right to live in peace and harmony.”

How Pueblo a Pueblo uplifts women

Since 2001, Pueblo a Pueblo’s maternal child health program has been striving to give mothers and their children the support they need during the most vulnerable stages of pregnancy and childhood. Pueblo a Pueblo provides free medical care for pregnant women and young children, workshops on health and nutrition, and home visits to ensure proper use of medical treatment.

Pueblo a Pueblo also provides educational support through our education program by offering scholarships and school supplies from primary school through university, as well as tutoring and after-school workshops.

You can support these programs by donating to Pueblo a Pueblo’s fund, administered by our partner organization Natik.