Cuban melipona bee producers receive international award

The International Award of the Stingless Bees of the World Living Museum Route (Meli Route) 2025 distinguished two experts from Cuba who stood out among a select group of specialists from several countries.

Walberto Loriga Peña, Doctor of Science and professor at the Agrarian University of Havana, received the award as Eminent Scientist in Melipona research; and Ernesto F. Leon Martinez, in the category of Distinguished Meliponiculturist with high productivity and diversification of the meliponiferous lines of his hives.

In exclusive statements to the Cuban News Agency, Loriga Peña stressed that this recognition was the result of the Meli Route project, which proposes travel experiences associated with tourism in order to show activities, resources and attractions in the breeding and development of the stingless bee (Meliponas beecheii), and the promotion of environmental sustainability.

Loriga Peña, who holds a PhD in Veterinary Sciences, has been linked to this activity for several decades, both in the teaching of knowledge in the classroom, workshops and conferences; in the tutoring of undergraduate, master's and doctoral theses; and in scientific research itself.

His book Manual de Meliponicultura en Cuba, published in 2020, is a reference for producers in the country, to which multiple researches published in scientific journals or in the proceedings of congresses and events in Guatemala, Chile, Mexico and Cuba are added.

For his part, Ernesto F. Leon Martinez, a graduate in Finance and Credit from the University of Havana, became interested in meliponas when he started working on his father's farm, and since then he has developed a great productive heritage with more than 140 hives of the so-called bees of the earth.

In addition, the techno-productive knowledge accumulated over decades in the treatment of melipona bees, make Ernesto the depositary of a vast culture that he transmits to new generations throughout the country.

Previously, in 2024, two women received this award in Cuba: Ph.D. C Leydi Fonte Carballo, in the category of Scientist, and Mayda Martinez Garcia, as best producer.