MERIDA, YUCATAN. – In the Yucatan Peninsula, the use of pesticides is decimating the population of bees. In 2018, the Mayan Alliance for the Bees of the Yucatan Peninsula, denounced that around 350 hives died from aerial fumigations. For years, the Maya communities have denounced the excessive use of agrochemicals and the deforestation of at least 600 thousand hectares each year.
Leydi Pech, delegate of the Maya Alliance for Bees of the Yucatan Peninsula, points out that deforestation and the excessive use of pesticides are due to the planting of transgenic soybean or sorghum. —”Since these are monocultures and they are very large, they generate a lot of pests, so they use more pesticides they spray with crop-dusters or helicopters killing everything in the surrounding areas.”
Dead bees from “Ejido Dzonot Carretero de Tizimín”
The most notorious case was registered at the end of last year in “Ejido Dzonot Carretero de Tizimín”, where aerial fumigations destroyed in one single day 91 bee colonies, each with a value of 4 thousand pesos.
Beekeepers have demanded all agricultural government dependencies and the Agrarian Prosecutor’s Office to declare the Yucatan Peninsula a “State of emergency” and stop deforestation in the Mexican southeast, as well as a complete stop in the use of aggressive pesticides that are killing the bees.
Types of honey from The Yucatan Peninsula.
Types of honey in the Yucatan Peninsula by region (Click to expand) Source: Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO @conabio)
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