Before starting Selva Maya, Gabi first started working with bee hive conservation. Selva Maya was created to develop natural products that also do something about the situation around bees and their vulnerability.
In a recent interview with HELPCA Costa Ballena, Gabi explains how Selva Maya naturally evolved:
“One day I received a call from a CINAT professor, asking me if I was interested in placing Native Honey at my stand at the Fería where I used to distribute agroecological products. It turns out that Doña Irene sent a gallon of native honey to the area of Los Santos, but they had not managed to sell it, she did not know what to do with that honey, and I accepted this challenge.”
“This is how I began to sell native honey: an experiment, which was built little by little. Today, Selva Maya is a pioneer company in the commercialization of native bee honey and has opened the market for this honey and we have diversified the economy of three meliponic farming families. Selva Maya has its own meliponary, but also collects honey from other meliponic farmers in the region and we work with a local solidarity economy approach.”
Gabi worked for ten years before Selva Maya on the preservation of native bee species from different lines of action. She rescues and removes native hives that are at risk as well as trains other women to become "bee-keepers.” Selva Maya is now developing a process of formation of a group of women "Guardianas de Las Abejas.” At this time the group is made up of about 12 women from the southern around Pérez Zeledon.“This mission is really important and the way we finance this work is with the profits from our sales in Selva Maya.”
Selva Maya is known for the Morpho Plus Cream, which developed out of Gabi’s concern for the bees and having access to natural cosmetic products. “Our concern arose more than ten years ago, after my studies in organic agriculture, beekeeping, meliponiculture and many courses where we learned formulations with synthetic bases and petrolates. I felt frustrated to see that there was no such thing as a truly natural formula. We strive to produce organic medicinal plants and we dilute the the extracts of them in synthetic bases and petrolates, I felt that there was something that did not make sense.”
The formula of the Morpho Plus Cream does not contain petrolatums or synthetic additives. An addition to being as natural as possible, Selva Maya also sources it's ingredients from Costa Rica, and regionally close as well. Today we can tell you that if you read the labels of other natural products, you may find few formulations like ours.”
Selva Maya locally sources their ingredients and products: “As a result of our extensive experience in the field of promoting local markets and fair trade that I developed years ago, I have many contacts of national producers and agroecological projects that provide me with the necessary raw materials and with this I make sure of their origin, through a wide network of contacts that I have been forging for many years.”
The Native Honey of the Tropics comes from a very particular source: the hives of native stingless bees from the tropical forest. “It is derived from a productive practice that is friendly to the environment, which is also an ancestral practice going back thousands of years."
Today, Native Tropic Honey is being positioned as highly medicinal due to its particular properties. Native Tropic Honey is a natural antibiotic that can be used as eye drops to moisturize, cleanse and regenerate the eye. It can also be used as nasal drops to decongest the respiratory tract in cases of allergies or colds. It can heal open wounds and burns, and also removes spots and scars. This honey is highly valued as a food supplement for serious diseases, as it strengthens the immune system. It is an excellent restorative for women after giving birth. And something very interesting is the potential it has shown for veterinary use.”
Selva Maya has been recognized for its impressive products, as well as community and environmental impact. Selva Maya was one of the finalist companies for the Brunca Region in the Entrepreneurship for Micro and Small Business of INCAE 2021, where they participated with the Native Tropical Honey product. Selva Maya was also one of the five finalist companies from the Brunca Region in the Seedstars business contest 2019 where they participated with the Morpho Plus Cream.
Miel Nativo del Trópico or Crema Morpho plus and more are on Selva Maya's HELPCA stand!
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