Amazon Stingless Bees: First Insect to Be Granted Legal Rights

Amazonian stingless bees (Tribe Meliponini) have become the first insect in the world to be granted legal rights after municipalities of Satipo and Nauta in Peru adopted the Declaration of Rights for Native Stingless Bees through a municipal ordinance.
The move aims to preserve Peru’s biocultural heritage and strengthen nature-rights governance and biodiversity conservation.

Significance of Decision

• Represents the first legal recognition of insect rights globally.
• Integrates Rights of Nature principles into local governance.
• Strengthens protection of a species critical to:
  • Pollination
  • Rainforest biodiversity
  • Indigenous cultural heritage
• Supports conservation at a time when stingless bees face
  • deforestation
  • climate change impacts
  • forest fires and habitat loss

About Amazonian Stingless Bees (Meliponini)

Key Biological & Ecological Characteristics

• Do not possess a functional sting (or cause minimal pain).
• Highly eusocial insects living in perennial colonies.
• Native to tropical and subtropical regions.
• ~500 known species globally, ~50% in the Amazon.
• Peru alone hosts over 170 species.
• Have existed for ~80 million years.

Ecological Importance

• Pollinate over 80% of Amazonian flora.
• Support major crops including:
  • cacao, coffee, avocados, blueberries
• Play a crucial role in:
  • ecosystem stability
  • forest regeneration
  • global biodiversity networks

Cultural & Societal Importance

• Deeply embedded in the traditions of Indigenous Asháninka and Kukama-Kukamiria communities.
• Honey used in traditional medicine, known for:
  • anti-inflammatory properties
  • antibacterial & antiviral effects
  • treatment for eye ailments (incl. cataracts)
• Honey characteristics:
  • higher water content
  • non-gooey texture
  • sweet-sour taste
• Practice of rearing stingless bees is called Meliponiculture.

Threats Faced by Stingless Bees in Amazon

• Deforestation & habitat destruction
  • Illegal logging
  • Agricultural expansion
  • Cattle grazing
• Increasing frequency of wildfires
• Rising temperatures
  • Forces migration to higher altitudes
  • Disrupts Indigenous communities dependent on honey
• Loss of natural nesting and foraging ecosystems

What New Law Provides

The ordinance recognizes the inherent rights of stingless bees, including:

• Right to exist and flourish
• Right to maintain healthy populations
• Right to restore and regenerate habitats
• Right to a pollution-free environment
• Right to ecologically stable climatic conditions
• Right to legal representation in cases of harm

Since insects cannot represent themselves, human guardians
(Indigenous leaders, community representatives, or experts) may act on their behalf in legal proceedings.

Legal & Policy Context

• Builds upon Peru’s 2024 national law recognizing stingless bees as native species requiring protection.
• The new declaration was developed in collaboration with Indigenous communities, acknowledging that:
  • Indigenous cultural rights are inseparable from the survival of stingless bees.
• Sets a global precedent for insect conservation under Rights of Nature frameworks.

What is “Declaration of Rights for Native Stingless Bees”?

• A Rights-of-Nature-based legal instrument integrated into municipal law.
• Establishes:
  • species-centered environmental protections
  • biocultural governance
  • legal accountability for ecological harm

Indian Recognition of Nature & Animal Rights

• Animal Welfare Board of India vs. A. Nagaraja (2014)
  • Supreme Court expanded meaning of life under Article 21 to include:
    • dignity
    • intrinsic worth of animals
    • freedom from unnecessary suffering
• Mohd. Salim vs. State of Uttarakhand (2017)
  • Uttarakhand High Court granted legal personhood to
    • Ganga and Yamuna rivers
  • Decision later stayed by Supreme Court

These cases reflect similar rights-based approaches to environmental and species protection.

About Amazon Rainforest

• Largest tropical rainforest globally.
• Spans nine South American countries.
• Known as the “lungs of the planet” due to carbon-absorption capacity.
• Home to:
  • ~10% of global biodiversity
  • Thousands of pollinator species.

Rights of Nature

• Legal philosophy recognizing:
  • Nature as a rights-bearing entity
  • Ecosystems possessing intrinsic legal standing
• First widely recognized case:
  • Ecuador (2008 Constitution) — Nature granted constitutional rights.