Stingless Bees From the Amazon Granted Legal Rights in World First (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0180475877
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/12/29/1956236/stingless-bees-from-the-amazon-granted-legal-rights-in-world-first
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/29/stingless-bees-from-the-amazon-granted-legal-rights-in-world-first
> It means that across a broad swathe of the Peruvian Amazon, the rainforest's long-overlooked native bees -- which, unlike their cousins the European honeybees, have no sting -- now have the right to exist and to flourish. Cultivated by Indigenous peoples since pre-Columbian times, stingless bees are thought to be key rainforest pollinators, sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem health.
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> But they are faced with a deadly confluence of climate change, deforestation and pesticides, as well as competition from European bees, and scientists and campaigners have been racing against time to get stingless bees on international conservation red lists. Constanza Prieto, Latin American director at the Earth Law Center, who was part of the campaign, said: "This ordinance marks a turning point in our relationship with nature: it makes stingless bees visible, recognises them as rights-bearing subjects, and affirms their essential role in preserving ecosystems."
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/29/stingless-bees-from-the-amazon-granted-legal-rights-in-world-first
Later... (Score:3)
Argentine man charged with murdering a cow.
Witnesses stated that he showed no remorse and and that he said it was delicious and that he would do it again.
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He overcooked the steaks... I hope he gets the death penalty.
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Unless you want everyone to be a Jain (which would lead to everyone dying very quickly), that isn't going to work.
Re: Good start (Score:2)
If only your mother had used protection...
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Would that include micro-animals like dust mites, and similar, that we kill every time we take a shower?
How many read this as from Amazon.com? (Score:2)
I was thinking free delivery with Amazon Prime.
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How very pavlovian. You clearly need a break from the website since it lives rent free in your head.
What does this actually do? (Score:2)
What does giving these bees the right to exist actually do? Is it a flag-waving virtue signal, or will it have a practical effect on anything that's happening and continues to happen to them as a species. Will this stop pollutants and pesticides that will continue to be used from affecting them? Will it stop deforestation as a policy going forward? On the surface, I don't see it as a negative move, but it seems awfully parallel to the term "empty promises." Like screaming at the bees, "We cool, man," while
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I Am Not A Peruvian Lawyer but if I can imagine it if something has legal protection then it can turn to the courts for remediation of harms.
Basically the bees have [1]standing [cornell.edu] now.
[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/standing
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I believe the intent would be to give legal standing to interested parties, allowing them to bring legal cases against other parties who may be killing or harming the bees. I doubt this will be very impactful on our continued drive towards extinction, but may be better than nothing.
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Seems just a weird way to say they have protected species status under law.
We protect the rights of Bees at the BCLU... (Score:2)
There are going to make orangutans have human rights next. :rolleyes:
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[1]Aregntina already granted an orangutan habeas corpus [bbc.com]
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30571577
Uh huh. And the moon can now sue the earth (Score:1)
for blocking out its god-given right to sunlight during a lunar eclipse.
have the right to exist (Score:3)
But they cannot defend that right.
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I definitely think that stingless bees have more of a right to exist than the stinger-bearing varieties. I would be happy to see the stingless ones completely displace the stinger-bearing ones.
And while we are at it, we need stingless wasps, stingless scorpions, non-blood-sucking mosquitoes, and vegetarian ticks that only eat weeds.
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> But they cannot defend that right.
Didn't you read TFA? They're issuing a bunch of tiny little weapons, and working with the bees to develop and train a standing militia.