Stingless bee conservation: Bibliometrics, legal, and biomolecular analysis.

What is it about?

One biodiversity: We need to keep track of all the research that's been done on stingless bees and make sure that laws are being created to protect them and their nests. This includes their special materials, microbes, and other important substances.

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Why is it important?

Stingless bees (Meliponini) represent the most biodiverse group of social bees in the tropics, with over 605 formally described species. Safeguarding this biodiversity requires close collaboration between local meliponary caretakers and multidisciplinary scientists, effectively merging ancestral practices with innovative modern knowledge. This study introduces the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis regarding stingless bee conservation since 2000, utilizing the Scopus repository to examine 359 academic documents from 141 sources spanning 58 countries. Global scientific output has demonstrated consistent growth, achieving its highest annual publication volumes between 2024 and 2025. While Latin American nations like Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina lead in overall productivity, the United States and Brazil emerge as primary contributors regarding scholarly impact and global citations. By employing Bibliometrix software, the data was organized into four distinct thematic clusters: biodiversity loss driven by climate change and deforestation; honey composition, pollen profiles, and distribution; general bee diversity; and essential pollination ecological services required to maintain ecosystem stability, particularly concerning the genus Melipona. Ultimately, this review highlights critical policy advancements, prospective frameworks for sustainably utilizing bee-derived biomaterials and microbiomes, and the development of formal legal frameworks that actively reinforce local conservation initiatives across multiple tropical nations.

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