Traditional ecological knowledge about bees among Guarani and Kaiowá indigenous students in central-western Brazil: implications for pollinator conservation

Abstract Global pollinator decline threatens biodiversity and ecosystem services, yet long-term monitoring remains scarce in much of the Neotropics. Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) may help fill part of this gap, but TEK-based approaches remain underused in insect conservation. We examined bee-related knowledge and perceptions among 150 Guarani and Kaiowá Indigenous students enrolled at FAIND/UFGD, Dourados, Brazil, across six cohorts from 2019 to 2024. The study combined structured questionnaires, a visual recognition task, and textual similarity analysis of open-ended responses. The visual panel comprised 20 illustrated bee taxa across five families, but recognition was concentrated in a small subset of Apidae. Participants used a bilingual repertoire with more than 25 native terms. Guarani participants more often distinguished stinging from stingless bees (78.9% vs. 62.4%; OR = 2.26, p = 0.046). Perceived bee presence declined among Kaiowá respondents (OR = 0.56/year, p < 0.001), whereas no consistent temporal trend was detected among Guarani respondents (OR = 0.88, p = 0.49). Similarity-tree analysis indicated partly distinct semantic structures between Guarani and Kaiowá participants. These findings show that student-held bee knowledge is a situated repertoire expressed within a bilingual, intercultural educational setting. Because the study is cross-sectional and perception-based, the temporal pattern reported for Kaiowá respondents should be interpreted as an indicator for follow-up monitoring, not as direct evidence of population decline. Implications for insect conservation Intercultural education offers a practical setting in which student-held bee knowledge can be articulated with specialist knowledge and field-based monitoring. Student responses can generate locally grounded hypotheses and educational priorities, but should not be treated as direct evidence of bee decline or as substitutes for ecological surveys.