Abejas del Sur: Regenerative Beekeeping in Gran Sabana

GOTAS

Socio-Ecological Regeneration in Venezuela

Gotas is a Venezuelan NGO driving socio-ecological regeneration in La Gran Sabana and Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Founded in 2018 by artist and nature advocate Liana Malva, Gotas uses a multidisciplinary approach that unites art, education, science, and community action to develop viable alternatives to illegal gold mining. Our current flagship initiative, Abejas del Sur (Southern Bees), trains 54 youth, primarily women in beekeeping and meliponiculture, building regenerative livelihoods that protect forests and empower local communities.

The Ecosystem We Work In

La Gran Sabana and Canaima National Park are among the most ecologically significant territories on the planet. Spanning 30,000 km² (nearly the size of Belgium) this UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to approximately 115 tepuis (ancient flat-topped mountains), hundreds of endemic species, and the headwaters of the Caroní River, a critical source of hydroelectric power for Venezuela. It is also the ancestral home of the Taurepán, Arekuna, Kamarakoto, and Pemón peoples.

Despite its protected status, the region is under severe threat from illegal gold mining. Venezuela has the highest proportion of indigenous territories and protected areas affected by mining of any country in the Amazon basin, according to RAISG (Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network). In communities like El Paují, mining has become the dominant and often only source of income, fragmenting social cohesion, polluting rivers, and destroying irreplaceable forests.

The Problem We're Solving

The crisis in La Gran Sabana is not simply environmental — it is socio-ecological. The collapse of dignified livelihoods has pushed families, including indigenous communities within the national park itself, toward extractivism as a survival strategy. Without viable economic alternatives, conservation is an abstraction. Our work begins with the conviction that lasting ecological regeneration is only possible when communities have the means to choose it.

Our Project: Abejas del Sur (Southern Bees)

Abejas del Sur is Gotas' first community regeneration prototype, launched in El Paují in February 2025 in partnership with UNDP's GEF Small Grants Program. It is a beekeeping and meliponiculture (stingless native bees) training program designed to transform six families, and ultimately the wider community, by establishing beekeeping as a financially viable, ecologically regenerative livelihood.

OBJECTIVE

Train 54 youth (primarily women) in beekeeping and meliponiculture, integrating indigenous and criollo communities in El Paují.

KEY ACTIVITIES

Beekeeping & meliponiculture training Development of apiaries Forest conservation Commercialization of bee products

EXPECTED IMPACT

Sustainable income for families Decrease in mining activity Forest preservation Youth & gender empowerment Replicable model for the region

Why Beekeeping?

Beekeeping and meliponiculture are uniquely suited to this territory. Native stingless bee species (meliponines) are integral to the ecosystem of the Gran Sabana and play a critical role in forest pollination. Honey and bee products from this pristine, biodiverse region command premium prices in conscious markets. Crucially, beekeeping requires forest preservation — a hive destroyed by mining cannot produce — creating a direct economic incentive for conservation.

With a potential influence area of 60,000 km² and 40,000 people of the Pemón ethnic group, the Abejas del Sur model is designed to be systemically replicable across the Gran Sabana territory, offering a structural, not merely symptomatic response to the socio-environmental crisis.

Our Approach: Art, Science, and Community

What makes Gotas distinct is our conviction that ecological regeneration requires cultural transformation. Our founder, Liana Malva, a Venezuelan artist and singer-songwriter who grew up in El Paují, uses music and art as tools for awareness, identity, and behavioral change. Gotas de Luz (Drops of Light), our art and music campaign (2018–present), has accumulated over 587,400 YouTube views and been presented at the Skoll World Forum (2021), the Wellbeing Summit Bogotá (2023), the IDG Summit Sweden (2025), and COP30 Brazil (2025).

Our approach combines this cultural power with rigorous science and community co-design. In 2022, with support from the Skoll Foundation, we conducted a full socio-productive capacity assessment of El Paují using international humanitarian standards, which directly shaped the design of Abejas del Sur. We work in partnership with UN agencies (UNDP/GEF, OCHA — UN implementing partners since 2023), Skoll Foundation, Merz Institute, NGO Provita, and local conservationist networks.

The Next Horizon: Alto Caroní Biosphere Reserve

Abejas del Sur is our proof-of-concept for a larger vision: the creation of the Alto Caroní Biosphere Reserve (Icabaru-Uaiparu Basin) — a 90,000-hectare territory to be transformed into a model of systemic sustainability, replacing extractivism with regenerative livelihoods, sustainable tourism, and circular economies. The long-term goal is formalization via presidential decree, establishing a territorial management benchmark for the entire Caroní River basin and Gran Sabana.

What Ma Earth Funds Will Enable

• Scale Abejas del Sur: expand capacity beyond the initial 6 families to reach the broader El Paují community

• Strengthen operational infrastructure: address the logistical challenges of working in a geographically isolated, infrastructure-poor territory (fuel, transport, cold chain for honey)

• Build market access: connect honey and bee product output to fair and conscious markets that can sustain the model financially

• Document and disseminate the model: produce replication guides for other Gran Sabana communities, establishing El Paují as a living innovation hub

Challenges We Are Confronting

We are transparent about the difficulties of operating in this context:

• Competition with mining: Gold provides immediate cash income. Our challenge is to make beekeeping equally, or more, economically attractive in the short term.

• Logistical isolation: Collapsed infrastructure and fuel scarcity in southern Venezuela significantly raise operational costs.

• Financial fragility: We operate in an environment of virtually non-existent local institutional support and depend on international funding, which we are actively working to diversify.

SDG Alignment

Gotas' work directly contributes to:

• SDG 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth: Dignified, sustainable livelihoods as an alternative to extraction

• SDG 15 — Life on Land: Protection of biodiversity and critical ecosystems in one of the world's ten most irreplaceable sites

• SDG 17 — Partnerships for the Goals: Multi-stakeholder alliances (UN, Skoll, UNDP, Merz Institute, Provita Ngo, local communities)