Beekeeping in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia: Entanglements, Transformations, and More-than-Human Becoming-with

Sustainable development interventions in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM), Colombia, have fostered distinctive relationships between beekeepers and bees. Drawing on the anthropology of nature(s), the anthropology of development, science and technology studies, and multispecies ethnography, we conducted ethnographic research between 2019 and 2024 using archival research, semi-structured interviews, and participation. By reconstructing the history of beekeeping in the SNSM alongside broader processes of territorialization, we identified a reciprocal learning process through which both beekeepers and bees shape one another's practices. These interactions cultivate forms of reciprocity and mutual recognition that extend beyond the human–bee relationship to include the diverse beings inhabiting coffee plantations and surrounding forests. Our findings reveal the emergence of more-than-human relationships that exceed purely economic or market-oriented logics and are instead sustained through practices of care and mutual learning. Beekeepers describe learning apicultural skills from the bees themselves, while the bees gradually come to recognize and respond to their human companions. This reveals a more-than-human and pluriversal ethic in which local communities are not merely users of development interventions, and bees and other-than-human beings are not merely resources. Rather, they are subjects who communicate and participate, thereby making possible multiple forms of existence and relationality.