Seeds of Hope: The story of Luz and Jairo, beekeepers in Colombia

Climate change has been devastating to traditional indigenous farmers in northern Colombia, causing disastrous droughts and stripping their livelihood from their grasp with little hope for a secure future in agriculture.

To counter the effects of climate change and reduce its impact on vulnerable communities and economies, Malteser International Americas, is working with a group of farmers in Colombia to bolster their traditional skills and add new, innovative apiculture (beekeeping) skills to their craft, with hopes of preserving their livelihood and creating better, healthier futures.

The novice beekeepers, who are from the regions of La Guajira, Magdalena, and Santa Marta, received specialized training in apiculture and sustainable agriculture. They were also taught how to preserve and protect their increasingly scare natural resources through best agriculture practices. The first group act as advocates of apiculture in their communities to educate interested farmers in the art of beekeeping as a sustainable way of life.

Luz and Jairo Linares are a husband and wife team who survive off of the land and make a living as traditional farmers. Increased climate change effects, such as long-standing droughts, the drying up of rivers, and the depletion of sustainable crops to harvest, have caused problems for the family. With their traditional farming output on the decline and their livelihood threatened, Luz and Jairo turned to Malteser International Americas’ innovative beekeeping program in Colombia as a new source of income.

The Linares family and the rest of the Colombian beekeepers manage wooden hives of the small, stingless Tetragonisca angustula bee, which produces a large amount of honey. The honey is known in the region as “miel de angelita”, which means “little-angel honey.” In Colombia, the price of this particular honey can be as much as ten times more than the price of honey produced by common honey bees.

Overall, nearly 4,000 people benefit and see and improvement in livelihood from the organization’s climate change adaptation programs in northern Colombia.