Bees are insects that inhabit all continents except Antarctica, although a greater number of species are found in arid and temperate zones than in tropical regions closer to the equator. Over 20,000 distinct subspecies of bees are currently recognized, classified into seven families.
Bees constitute an integral component of the biodiversity upon which all human societies depend for survival. They provide high-quality food products—including honey, royal jelly, and pollen—as well as other substances such as beeswax, propolis, and apitoxin (bee venom). As one of the most widely distributed pollinator groups globally, bees make a direct contribution to worldwide food security. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), one third of global food production depends on bee pollination.
Furthermore, bees rank among the most ancient insect lineages, having inhabited the Earth for at least 30 million years. It is therefore unsurprising that the narratives and sacred texts of most spiritual and religious traditions have, for millennia, underscored their significance to human societies. In the present era, the stewardship of bees has acquired particular relevance for cultures whose cosmogony mandates a holistic relationship with nature, as well as with productive and economic activities in general.
A notable example is the Asháninka people, whose territory extends across the upper reaches of the tropical forest in eastern Peru, encompassing the regions of Junín, Ucayali, Pasco, Cusco, Huánuco, and Ayacucho. This territory includes families living in isolation or in initial contact, located within the Otishi National Park and the Asháninka Communal Reserve. According to 2017 census data, the Asháninka population numbers 118,277 members, distributed across approximately 675 localities (405 of which are formally recognized as native communities). Additionally, at the national level, 55,493 individuals self-identify as members of the Asháninka people.
A recent study has demonstrated that the Asháninka possess unique ecological knowledge concerning stingless bees (genus Melipona), a species that is crucial both to their culture and to the sustainability of the Amazonian ecosystem. Melipona is a genus of apocritan hymenopterans belonging to the family Apidae, comprising at least forty species. Its geographic distribution spans from Argentina to Mexico, including Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Venezuela—in other words, the entire Neotropical realm.
In the Amazon region, stingless bees account for 85% of forest pollinators. They contribute to the forest’s gene flow, biodiversity, and the provision of adequate quantities of high-quality food. Stingless bees are valued not only for their therapeutic properties but also are regarded as spiritual beings that maintain equilibrium with the natural world. The ancestral knowledge of the Asháninka has enabled the sustainable management of these bees; their honey is employed in traditional medicine to treat various ailments. For instance, honey is harvested without felling trees, and the use of natural hives is practiced, thereby ensuring ecosystem conservation and colony survival. Asháninka communities apply multiple sustainable techniques during honey collection, such as opening cavities in tree trunks that are subsequently sealed to preserve the bees’ habitat. To control pests, they utilize ashes from specific tree species, as no industrial pesticides of any kind are employed.
The value of stingless bee honey transcends its dietary use. The Asháninka employ it as a natural remedy for conditions including colds, bronchitis, burns, and wounds, sometimes in combination with certain plants such as matico (Piper aduncum), which played an essential role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Municipal Ordinance on Bees
Within Asháninka territory, the municipality of Satipo (Junín) approved, in October 2025, Ordinance No. 33-2025-CM/MPS, recognizing native stingless bees (Melipona spp.) as subjects of rights within the Avireri Vraem Biosphere Reserve. This represents the world’s first instance of granting legal rights to an insect, thereby guaranteeing their existence, a healthy habitat, and legal representation in response to population decline caused by deforestation and pesticide use.
The recognition of bees’ rights in Satipo seeks to ensure the resilience of Amazonian ecosystems, which are critical to the survival of the region and its local communities. The ordinance, developed through an alliance among Indigenous leaders, scientists, politicians, and environmental defenders, aims to confront the threats affecting bees—and consequently all of nature—principally deforestation, pesticide application, habitat loss, and the impacts of climate change.
The ordinance’s initial articles, which define its objective and purpose, establish the following intent: “To promote and formally declare Amazonian stingless bees and their habitat as subjects of rights, recognizing their intrinsic rights, such as the right to exist, to maintain healthy populations, to live in a healthy environment, and to conserve and regenerate their habitat, linking their protection with conservation.”
Chapter IV, entitled “Declaration,” includes a list of declaratory statements concerning Amazonian bees. The first and most relevant statement reads: “Amazonian stingless bees and their habitat are subjects of rights.” Subsequently, the ordinance enumerates the rights possessed by these bees:
- The right to exist and to maintain a healthy population size;
- The right to ecologically sustainable climatic conditions;
- The right to a healthy environment free from contamination and other anthropocentric impacts that cause physical or health damage;
- The right to biodiversity and native flora, free from invasive species;
- The right to exercise their ecological role and to maintain and regenerate their life cycles, functions, and evolutionary processes;
- The right to the restoration and regeneration of their habitat;
- The right to representation in the exercise of their own rights and legal interests.
The ordinance further incorporates concrete measures for the protection and conservation of stingless bees within their habitat in that province. Articles 5, 6, and 7 establish three obligations:
- To prioritize the rescue and relocation of natural hives in situations that so require;
- To prioritize the preservation and restoration of the natural habitats of stingless bees, for which purpose it shall seek to increase the availability of floral resources and nesting sites, as well as the creation of ecological corridors within the reserve and native communities;
- To avoid harmful forestry practices and other threats that negatively affect stingless bees, and to promote the progressive reduction of insecticide use while prioritizing biological control.
Additionally, Article 8 of the ordinance mandates the promotion of environmental education, with the aim of raising awareness “about the importance of conserving stingless bees and their habitats.”
Other Similar Resolutions
Although the Junín decision is the most recent and original in terms of the protected subject, it is not the first of its kind in Peru. In April 2025, likewise by ordinance (in this case a regional one), the Regional Council of Puno declared Lake Titicaca and its tributaries as subjects of rights, granting them their own legal personality. Article 1 of that ordinance states: “To declare of preferential regional interest the recognition of Lake Titicaca and its tributaries as subjects of rights, with their own legal personality, guaranteeing their comprehensive protection for the preservation of their ecological balance, biodiversity, and cultural, social, and spiritual values of the surrounding indigenous peoples, local communities, and organizations linked to their management and conservation in the Puno region.”
Even earlier, in June 2024, the Third Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Lima ruled that the State must respect the rights of nature, including animals, which possess the right to differentiated protection, and granted the little fox named Run Run its rights. The court analyzed the constitutional principles of wildlife preservation, “the obligation to respect” nature, as well as the importance of protecting fundamental constitutional rights, such as the right to a healthy environment. The court reasoned that animals, like humans, are sensitive, thinking, and conscious beings, and must therefore be respected and protected by law. Consequently, Run Run received protection, rights, and autonomous custody as a “member of nature,” derived from the concept of the rights of nature. It was ordered that Run Run be reevaluated to determine whether he could be released back into the wild.
Nature as a Subject of Rights
For a considerable period, multiple instances have been documented of legal norms, judicial decisions, and other actions recognizing rights for nature or its components. Among these, the current Constitution of Ecuador, approved in 2008, deserves special mention. Its Title II, “Rights,” begins with Article 10, which establishes: “Persons, communities, peoples, nationalities, and collectives are holders and shall enjoy the rights guaranteed in the Constitution and in international instruments. Nature shall be a subject of those rights recognized by the Constitution.” To date, this remains the only national constitution with such a clear formulation, and it explicitly links nature with its primary defenders: Indigenous Peoples.
Very recently, the Inter‑American Court of Human Rights issued Advisory Opinion No. 32 on climate emergency and human rights. Paragraph 7 of the opinion recognizes Nature and its components as subjects of rights, which, according to the Court, “constitutes a normative development that allows strengthening the protection of the integrity and functionality of ecosystems in the long term, providing effective legal tools against the triple planetary crisis and facilitating the prevention of existential damage before it becomes irreversible.” The Court further states that this conception reflects a growing international trend to strengthen the protection of ecological systems against present and future threats, as well as a contemporary manifestation of the principle of interdependence between human rights and the environment.
In line with the Ecuadorian Constitution, the Court also highlights the role of indigenous peoples and communities in caring for nature. Thus, Advisory Opinion No. 32 underscores the relevance of indigenous knowledge, with particular emphasis on the role of indigenous women, while demanding measures to protect this knowledge, indigenous lands and territories, and to combat crimes committed against environmental defenders.
Examining the broader landscape reveals numerous examples of recognition of the rights of nature. Without attempting an exhaustive list, it is worth noting that in Colombia, the Constitutional Court recognized rights of the Atrato River in 2016 and of the Amazon in 2018. In Peru, prior to the cases discussed, a court in Nauta recognized rights of the Marañón River. In the United States, there are cases of rights recognition in Toledo, Ohio, and Santa Monica, California. In Europe, very recent examples include Germany (Erfurt District Court, 2024) and Spain (in 2024, the City Council of Serra de Outes, Galicia, unanimously approved the Declaration of Rights of the Tins River; in 2022, a legal norm recognized legal personality for the Mar Menor lagoon and its basin). Similar cases exist in other regions, such as Bangladesh and New Zealand, to name but a few.
An Epocal Necessity
The overlapping crises confronting humanity—and especially the least privileged sectors, which constitute the vast majority—demand concrete responses to the most urgent problems, notwithstanding the obscuring narratives that generate unsustainable illusions. It may seem self‑evident, yet without nature, nothing will remain, nothing will hold meaning: not money, not fame, not power. Absolutely nothing will make sense. Therefore, amidst endless wars that appear to serve only the concrete interests of arms manufacturers and dealers, there continue to be individuals and collectives who dedicate their efforts to sustaining life rather than promoting death.
At this juncture, it is beyond doubt that the alternative(s) to the current hegemonic system must prioritize the maintenance—and, where possible, the restoration—of the environment in which we still live, namely nature, the Pachamama. As brilliantly summarized by Zaffaroni, this certainty is reached from different starting points: from science and also from ancestral cultures. It represents “an encounter between a scientific culture that becomes alarmed and a traditional culture that already knew the danger.”
Declaring a sea, a river, a lake, or bees as subjects of rights is neither a curious, folkloric, nor utopian episode. Rather, these are concrete steps taken by collectives who are acutely aware of the reality we face—actions that deserve to be valued and emulated.