Diagnóstico socioeconômico e ambiental da atividade apícola e da meliponicultura em municípios do Cariri Ocidental Paraibano.

Abstract

Beekeeping and creation of native bees play essential environmental services for maintaining the balance of the ecosystem of Caatinga. The study aimed to analyze the beekeeping and melipona activity as social, economic and environmental alternative for the sustainable development of the Cariri Ocidental paraibano region, being conducted in the cities of Prata (07º45'46.4 "037º07'16.0", 698 m), Ouro Velho (07º38'53.9 "037º09'24.2", 630 m), São José dos Cordeiros (07º29'24.1 "036º50'56.3", 655 m) and Serra Branca (07º30'20.1 "036º50'15.0", 664 m) from the exploratory visits and application of semi-structured questionnaires, the research approach enabled the apimeliponicultura in social environmental, economic and technical aspects. In the Cariri Ocidental paraibano the beekeeping and creative of native bees has been developed as an alternative income generating activity of farming families, in the meantime the work found the limitations of productive activity which is appreciably affected by cyclical periods of drought in the semiarid region The results indicate the need for use of management alternatives for mitigating these impacts, and building a strategic plan that addresses the factors of production, processing and marketing to strengthen the supply chain. Therefore, it is concluded that beekeeping and creation of stingless bees are vectors that connect the pillars of sustainability, providing family farmers to keep workers in the field and ensuring the maintenance of genetic diversity of plants of Caatinga for environmental services performed.