Redes produtivas : um estudo de caso da Associação Retirense de Apicultores em Barão de Melgaço - MT como altenativa de desenvolvimento regional

Abstract

This article consists on the study of how beekeeping can contribute to the economic development of small agricultural communities. The case study is the Retirense Association of Beekeepers (ARAPI) established by inhabitants of the «Retiro São Bento» community, located in the «Pantanal» in the city Barão de Melgaço in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The objective is to study the structure of the productive net of this organization as well as its importance for the development of the region where it is inserted. The research has been based on observation in loco and in information in documents yielded by Association and Ecological Ranch «SESC Pantanal». This is the entity that promoted the first actions for the insertion of the beekeeping in the «Retiro São Bento» community. As it has been already pointed in some studies, the Pantanal is an ecosystem of beehive, and then, the ARAPI has gotten success in its production and consequently the community could increase the familiar income, and promote actions for the development of the beekeeping as well as to guarantee a longer time of the biological wealth of this environmental «pantaneiro» to the next generations.