Territorial and spatial diagnosis of beekeeping in the agro-ecological systems of the Laguna Region

Abstract

Productive management of honey bees and the use of related technology has improved the practices developed in the different processes of this activity; however, shifting into other forms of focus and botanical origin determinations of honey and vegetation foraging by bees has been rare, hence this study was undertaken in order to determine the landscape-territorial space of beekeeping in the Laguna Region in 2011. The apiaries were geo-referenced using a Global Positioning System (GPS). In order to represent, cartographically the location and geographical distance of the different structures of interest of elementary beekeeping vegetation in a radius of 3 km from the apiary we used digital mapping of land use and vegetation of scale 1:250 000. According to the model of geographic information exists a relatively short distance between each apiary site, so that the flora present in the territorial spaces more competed by the bees. Gómez Palacio, Durango and Matamoros, Coahuila are the municipalities with the highest number of apiaries. The most important ecological mosaic is microphyll desert scrub associated with secondary vegetation. Mesquite is the most prominent wildlife species for beekeeping in the Laguna Region. Moreover, alfalfa, annual forage crops and horticultural conglomerate formed the most important cultivated plant for honeybees in this region.