Law No. 19.732 providing for the responsible breeding, management, sustainable use, transport and trade of stingless bee colonies (ASF), or parts thereof, their products and the provision of services arising from the practice of stingless bee-keeping in the State of Santa Catarina.

This Law establishes a comprehensive regulatory framework for the rational breeding, management, sustainable use, transport, and commercialization of stingless bees and their products within the State of Santa Catarina. Its principal objective is to formally recognize and promote meliponiculture as a public utility activity aligned with sustainable development, given its ecological role as a key pollination service provider. To this end, the law legalizes and facilitates a wide range of activities—such as breeding, trade, and service provision—across urban, peri-urban, and rural areas, subject to sanitary and registration requirements. It also introduces clear definitions and classifications of species, production systems, and products, and establishes a simplified but mandatory registration system for meliponiculturists and their colonies to ensure traceability, regulatory oversight, and integration with animal health authorities. A further core objective of the law is to support environmental conservation and biodiversity protection while enabling economic development through sustainable use practices. It promotes the conservation of native bee species, encourages the use of non-destructive methods for colony acquisition, and integrates meliponiculture into environmental licensing processes, including mandatory rescue of colonies affected by development projects. The law also fosters habitat restoration by incentivizing the use of native flora beneficial to bees and discouraging harmful or invasive species. Additionally, it recognizes the ecosystem services provided by pollination by enabling access to environmental incentives such as payment for ecosystem services and carbon credit schemes. Overall, the law seeks to balance ecological preservation, agricultural productivity, and socio-economic benefits through a structured and sustainable governance model for meliponiculture.