A BEEKEEPING AND ROTARY SOLIDARY FUNDS: ARE THERE POSSIBILITIES FOR SUSTAINABLE TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT?

Abstract

Beekeeping has been used as a meaning of increasing income for farmers in the Zona da Mata Sul in the state of Paraíba. This activity received financial support through the Solidarity Productive Projects Support Program (PAPPS) through Solidarity Rotating Funds, financed by the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE), also by SENAES, as well as Banco do Nordeste do Brasil (BNB), a policy of solidary finance to "lost fund", in which the beekeeper receives the fund and has as fundamental element the investment in the beekeeping activity. The central objective of this study is to investigate possibilities of sustainable development of the territory with beekeeping that receives public resources. The research methodology is qualitative, based on field research, on-site observations and in-depth interviews, more precisely between the Tambaba and Nova Vida settlements. With the arrival of the Solidarity Rotating Fund, this activity had its rise and, in this perspective, we had as a central objective to verify possibilities of local territorial sustainable development from the beekeeping as an alternative of income production, through this public policy. The Beekeepers Cooperative of Paraíba (COOAP) received this fund and invested among beekeepers - a fund called "lost fund" because it is not returned to the bank, but must be redistributed among beekeepers.