Regenerative Apiculture and the Ethics of Relationship

We live within a wider Earth-community, alive with many ways of being and knowing, and with diverse forms of agency, sentience, intelligence, and communication. Anthropologist Eduardo Kohn asks, “How do forests think?” The Rights of Nature movement wonders, “Who is the river in front of us?” These questions invite another: Who are the more-than-human communities that make up the living congregation of this world, and what does it mean to belong to them?

This session turns toward the philosophical and ethical ground beneath regenerative apiculture. We will explore key currents in Deep Ecology and consider how they can inform novel pathways of honeybee stewardship and conservation, especially in a time when ecological relationships are being rapidly reshaped.

Drawing from contemporary work across the humanities, ecological science, and Rights of Nature thought, we will examine how our frameworks of meaning shape our practices. What changes when we meet honeybees not as resources, but as participants in shared worlds, bearing their own purposes and forms of intelligence? How might conservation evolve when it is rooted in relationship, responsibility, and humility, rather than control?

Topics include

• Deep Ecology as a foundation for stewardship, and what it offers regenerative apiculture
• Rights of Nature perspectives, and how they reshape the ethics of care and coexistence
• More-than-human intelligence and communication, with attention to perception, meaning, and relationship
• Conservation as cultural practice, including language, worldview, and the stories that guide action
• A holistic approach to honeybee care, integrating science with ethics, philosophy, and lived belonging

This live-streamed workshop is designed for interactive learning and lively conversation, welcoming participants of all experience levels. Led by Michael Thiele and the Apis Arborea team, it cultivates a deeper relationship with the wisdom of wild honeybees and supports a grounded reimagining of apiculture in harmony with living ecosystems.

Recordings will be available after the workshop. Scholarships are available upon request.