Diagnostico da apicultura, boas práticas apícolas e caracterização fisico-química do mel de Apis mellifera L. em área de proteção ambiental (APA) das ilhas e várzes do Rio Paraná: gestão e desenvolvimento sustentável

Abstract

The study was carried out in the he Environmental Protection Area (Área de Proteção Ambiental – APA, in Portuguese) Ilhas e Várzeas do Rio Paraná in two papers: the first one aims to analyze the practices and the honey quality produced by beekeepers from to Altônia and Guaíra cities, booth located in two Conservation Units (CUs) belonging to the APA in Paraná and the second seek to analyze APA beekeeping. In the first paper we study about the honey quality whit 16 samples, 09 from Guaíra city and 7 from Altônia. The physicochemical variables analyzed were reducing sugar (%), sucrose (%), acidity (meq kg-1), pH, Hydroxymethylfurfural - HMF (mg kg-1), humidity (%), and conductivity (μS cm-1). To gather information about beekeeping practices, a questionnaire was applied to the same 16 beekeepers which honey samples were collected from. The set of variables that were associated resulted in the construction of indexes associated with the practices of use and equipment, handling, harvest and post-harvest, and commercialization. Among the 16 samples collected, 18.8% did not meet the required standards for the reducing sugars parameter, 12.5% did not meet the required standards for the sucrose and honey moisture parameters, and 6.3% did not meet the requireds standard for electrical conductivity. Among the 16 samples collected from beekeepers who have their apiaries in the APA located in the municipalities of Guaíra and Altônia, 56.3% and 28.6%, respectively, were noncompliant with the required quality standards. The general beekeeping index that covers the four apiary practices was 0.47. The study was effective in detecting the problems faced by beekeepers in the APA, enabling better decision making, specifically during honey collection and storage. In the second paper, we analyzed the beekeeping scenario in the Guaíra, Altônia, São Jorge do Patrocínio, Alto Paraíso, and Icaraíma, all located in the State of Paraná, as well as CUs in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, including the municipalities of Mundo Novo, Eldorado, Itaquirai, and Naviraí, were diagnosed. The variables collected were total number of Africanized honey bee colonies, number of apiaries, number of beekeepers, bee colonies per hectare, honey productivity per hectare (in kg), area of the CU in the municipality, honey productivity in the CU in the municipality (in kg), and the average honey productivity per hectare (in kg). There was a strong, positive, and significant association (p<0.05) between the variables total number of Africanized bee colonies and the number of apiaries (r=0.88), between the total number of Africanized bee colonies and the number of beekeepers (r=0.93), between the number of apiaries and the number of beekeepers (r=0.92), between the number of apiaries and the honey productivity in conservation areas (kg) (r=0.88), between the number of beekeepers and the honey productivity in the conservation areas (r=0.93), between the number of bee colonies per hectare and the honey productivity per hectare (in kg) (r=0.93), between the number of bee colonies per hectare and the area of conservation units (r=0.95), and between the honey productivity per hectare (in kg) and the area of conservation units (r=0.96). The CUs in the municipalities of Paraná are more similar when considering all the variables associated with the beekeeping diagnosis, while the municipalities in the south of Mato Grosso are more like each other. The study of the beekeeping scenario in the APA enables the construction of a plan for the rational breeding of Africanized bees that meets the environmental, economic, and social aspects.