Bees were introduced to Easter Island by the Catholic missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the decade of the 1860s, and since then have been pollinating guavas, mangoes, bananas and pasture flowers. In the last 50 years, there have been more than a few initiatives to establish proper apiculture on the Island, but none has been able to last. Hives have been destroyed, left without their levels and attacked by ants, all of which have led the colonies to leave where they had been established.

A recent study by the Center for Beekeeping Development at the University Mayor (CeapiMayor) and the Chilean Beekeeping Corporation (Cach), with the support of the Foundation for Agrarian Innovation (FIA) discovered that the descendants of these bees are now unique in the world because they are totally free from any pathogens (bacteria, viruses, mites, fungi). This news was an incentive for a group of owners of beehives to form an Agro-apian Cooperative which they call Meri Henua (honey-earth, in the local language). After less than a year of intensive training, it can now be said that Rapa Nui has proper beekeepers. “We are 15. Unfortunately, one member pulled out because he felt that we were holding him back. He already had continental partners in Rancagua where they package and then distribute in Santiago…” comments the president, Diana Edmunds. “Our mission as a co-operative is not as much to sell as to protect our wild bees. Each one of us monitors the bees, teaches the children in the schools and promotes reforestation, both in town and out in the countryside, with nectar producing plants (sweet basil, hibiscus, strawberry, mango, passion fruit, noni, avocado, banana, thyme, clover). In addition, we have a project with CONAF (Chilean National Forestry Service) to work with the Honga’a o te Mana Secondary School. We want to make people aware that the reserve of bees on the Island is part of our heritage, almost like the Moai (statues).”

Throughout the planet there are nearly 20 thousand species of bees and they are our principal pollinators, but their numbers are dropping due to the use of insecticides and diseases. About 75% of the major food crops throughout the world depend on pollination by animals, with bees and bumblebees being the most efficient. There are four major plagues that affect bees: the Varroa destructor mite, the Acarapis woodi parasite, the Paenibacillus larvae and Melissococcus plutón bacteria. Until now, there are only two places in the world which are recognized as being free from the varroa mite: Australia and the South Island of New Zealand. Those bees are considered to be the healthiest on the planet, so their honey and byproducts are in very high demand. Rapa Nui could now be the third on the list, if it passes the exhaustive exams that are being undertaken by the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture’s Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) of Easter Island. Francisco Vergara, the Provincial Director, informs that the office has been developing a protocol over the last two years with annual sampling for diseases in order to get the legal status needed to protect the area and declare the Island as a disease-free territory. The Island’s sanitary conditions should permit it to become a biological reserve and even export queens and healthy genetic material.