Meliponicultura as a sustainable alternative for the preservation of native forests of Santana do Ipanema / Meliponicultura como alternativa sustentável para preservação das matas nativas de Santana do Ipanema

: According to Magalhães (2009), archaeological research shows that social bees already produced and stocked honey 20 million years ago, even before the emergence of man on Earth, which occurred only a few million years ago. In 1851 Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth found that bees deposited propolis in any space smaller than 4.7 mm and constructed combs in spaces larger than 9.5 mm. The measurement between these two spaces Langstroth called "bee space", which is the smallest free space inside the hive and where two bees can pass at the same time. And so began the development of this activity. Meliponiculture is the rational creation of stingless bees. The meliponário is the place where the boxes for raising stingless bees are installed. The meliponicultor is one that is dedicated to the creation of stingless bees (NASCIMENTO, 1996). It is an activity that can be developed as a secondary activity within the property since the management does not have to be daily and thus occupy all the time of the producer. Usually visits to meliponario occur every fortnight. It is also pertinent to mention how much it can be profitable to work with meliponicultura since the products originating from it have a high commercial value, and its production does not require great investments, in other words, any farmer having aptitude can become meliponicultor