Conservation of Stingless Bees (Hymenoptera: Meliponini) in West Kalimantan, Indonesia
Manap Trianto, Hari Purwanto, and R.C. Hidayat Soesilohadi

Faculty of Biology, Universitas Gadjah Mada. Jl. Teknika Selatan, Sekip Utara, Bulaksumur, Sleman 55281,
Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

Pollination is a critical for food production and human livelihoods in West Kalimantan. Currently, stingless
bees are major pollination service provider to many agricultural crops. However, there is clear evidence of recent declines
in stingless bees and it is urgent need to look for alternative and native pollinators. West Kalimantan is rich with native
pollinator such as stingless bees. Currently, at least six species were inventoried and could be used to pollinate several
agricultural crops such as starfruit, guava, citrus, mango, watermelon, durian, and coconut. Nowadays, global attention
focuses on the threat of decreasing numbers of plants and pollination species, which have a direct impact on ecosystem
function, especially to local and global stingless bee biodiversity. Due to the current evidence of the decreasing number
of stingless bees accumulated in taxonomic and geographical scales, we decided to observe the role of stingless bees
cultivation based on species and habitat approaches. Species biodiversity, population size, and growth rates are
influenced by Spatio-temporal variations all of them have an important role in their vulnerability to extinction. Several
issues to be considered before stingless bees can be utilized as pollination service provider in agricultural ecosystem.
These issues included conservation of their species, capacity building and research on their biology, ecology and
behavior. Out of these, six species - Tetragonula laeviceps, T. drescheri, T. biroi, Homotrigona apicalis, Heterotrigona
itama, and Lepidotrigona terminata, were able to be utilized to pollinate several agricultural crops in West Kalimantan.

Keywords: Conservation, Stingless Bees, West Kalimantan

Topic: Biology