Maya Women in Mérida’s Outlying Communities Launch Stingless Beekeeping Projects

Mérida, Yucatán — Twenty-eight Maya women from three outlying communities of Mérida have received beehives, equipment and training to launch stingless beekeeping businesses under a municipal program backed by a local grocery chain.

The participants come from the comisarías — outlying municipal districts — of Molas, Yaxnic and Dzoyaxché, and are taking part in the program “Maya Women Preserving Stingless Bees,” run by the Mérida City Hall in coordination with Abarrotes Dunosusa.

Each group received a package containing four hives, nine empty boxes and tools for handling the bees. Dunosusa invested about 100,000 pesos per group.

The initiative is designed to strengthen the women’s economic independence, leadership and community organizing, while also contributing to the conservation of native bee species.

Training Covers Hive Management and Harvesting

The course work includes the biology of native bees, pest control, hive management, reforestation, harvesting, storage and the production of byproducts such as honey and wax.

Yahayra Centeno Ceballos, director of the municipal Women’s Institute, said the program aims to create productive opportunities from within the communities themselves, in line with the priorities of Mayor Cecilia Patrón Laviada.

The institute is also running the so-called Hive Project, which promotes collective organization, decision-making, communication and shared goal-setting among the producers.

Program Extends Into 2027

The program calls for five biweekly training and follow-up sessions during the final months of 2026. For 2027, organizers plan monthly follow-up sessions and entrepreneurship workshops.

City officials said the effort seeks to broaden economic opportunities for women in Mérida’s comisarías and to strengthen the preservation of Yucatán’s native bees.