In Colombia, confiscated timber is used to help resuscitate bee population

Bees work on honeycombs inside a beehive in the municipality of Socorro in Santader departament, Colombia. — AFP

IN NORTHEAST Colombia, police guard warehouses stacked high with confiscated timber with a noble new destiny: transformation into homes for bees beleaguered by pesticides and climate change.

The illegally harvested wood is used in the Santander department’s “Timber Returns Home” initiative, building hives since 2021 to house the little pollinators so critical to human survival.