BeeCON

Human activities have a deep impact on our planet. As a consequence of drastic changes in land-use, living species are declining dangerously, which poses an unprecedented threat to biodiversity and ecosystem sustainability worldwide. Moreover, the livelihoods of local human communities are often jeopardized, owing to their fundamental relationship with the environment and its resources. It is therefore urgent to find efficient sustainable solutions to preserve biodiversity and protect the quality of both human living and environment. Traditional ecological knowledge and practices offer a strong potential to tackle these crucial issues. It plays a critical role in reinforcing the resilience of communities facing drastic deleterious environmental changes by enhancing social cohesion and conserving community cultural identity in the current context of globalization. However, such knowledge and practices still remain insufficiently considered in both conservation and sustainable management policies. This may be explained by the fact that investigations of ecological issues are generally restricted to monodisciplinary research and expertise, which prevents a comprehensive understanding of social-ecological systems and of the multidimensional nature of biodiversity and its cultural values. Thus, it is necessary to empirically assess, using an interdisciplinary approach, how traditional ecological knowledge can contribute to the development and reinforcement of sustainable practices. In this context, the BeeCON project proposes a research methodology that integrates traditional ecological knowledge with other scientific disciplines, including social sciences, botany and genomics, in order to understand and capture the benefits of cultural practices and knowledge in sustainable management of biodiversity and conservation. We will focus on the pollinator Apis dorsata, the Asian migratory honeybee that plays an essential role in ecosystem functioning and human food security, and whose life cycle and ecological niche have been detrimentally impacted by massive deforestations. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we will investigate the evolution of different honey harvesting practices in Indonesia (i.e. honey hunting and rafter beekeeping) in a cultural, social and ecological context, in order to understand their cultural dynamics and contribution to the development and reinforcement of sustainable apicultural practices. Moreover, we will study these human activities, together with the genetics and habitat of Apis dorsata, in order to assess the effects of such practices and other environmental factors on its nesting and therefore on Apis dorsata genetic diversity and conservation. Finally, our interdisciplinary approach will give rise to multidimensional data allowing us to examine, at an unprecedented level of resolution, the ecology of wild honeybees, in interaction with human cultural practices. Such database is essential to appreciate the complexity of social-ecological systems and develop effective strategies aiming at constructing future sustainable management of native wild honeybees and the underlying human activities.