Supply Chain
Advises on sourcing relationships
Devotion to the Way of the Bee
Stewards of the Hive
ALVARA's living covenant with the bees, the beekeepers, and the ecosystems that make all life possible.
Bees have been navigating this world for roughly 130 million years, since the age of the dinosaurs, long before our species took its first breath. They've built systems of collective intelligence, regenerative abundance, and vibrational communication that we're only beginning to understand.
The Covenant
The hive is not a metaphor. It's a model for how to live in symbiosis with our natural environment.
Stewards of the Hive is ALVARA's commitment to living in reciprocal relationship with our most essential partners: the bees, the beekeepers, and the ecosystems that sustain them all. STH is built on four interconnected initiatives: a collective of organizations devoted to pollinator vitality, a tithing model that directs resources to that collective, a movement that invites people into their own relationship with the way of the bee, and Stewardship Sites, where that relationship takes physical form on the land.
Why Bees Are Non-Negotiable
A Keystone Species
A keystone is the central stone of an arch. Remove it, and everything collapses. In ecology, a keystone species is one whose presence holds an entire system together, disproportionately large in impact relative to its size. Bees are among the clearest examples on Earth.
75%
of the world's flowering plants depend on animal pollinators
USDA NRCS
35%
of the world's food crops depend on animal pollinators
USDA NRCS
90%
of flowering plant species are animal-pollinated
Tong et al., Natl Sci Rev, 2023
⅓
of all plants and plant products eaten by humans depend on bee pollination
UN FAO
62%
average colony loss reported by U.S. commercial beekeepers, June 2024 to February 2025
Project Apis m.
15/17
UN Sustainable Development Goals that bees contribute to achieving
Patel et al., Ambio, 2021
The cascade runs deep. Without bees, the plants that feed livestock would suffer, threatening meat and dairy supplies, driving prices up, and reducing nutritional diversity across the board. Their loss would trigger a bottom-up collapse throughout the food chain, affecting not just the plants they pollinate but every organism that depends on those plants to survive.
And the threat is real. Between June 2024 and February 2025, U.S. commercial beekeepers reported an average loss of 62% of their managed honey bee colonies, over 1.1 million colonies lost, one of the most severe declines on record.
Initiative One
The Collective
There are scores of organizations, researchers, beekeepers, and Indigenous wisdom carriers doing essential work for pollinators around the world. What they often lack is connection to one another and to the consumer brands that rely on their work.
Our role is to be bridge builders. The STH Collective is a curated network of individuals and organizations devoted to the protection and flourishing of bees, spanning conservation nonprofits, regenerative apiaries, Indigenous beekeeping communities, independent researchers, and purpose-driven brands. Rather than build something new from scratch, we cultivate and strengthen what already exists.
What the Collective Does
- Connects beekeepers to each other, to researchers, and to conservation organizations
- Facilitates resource-sharing, knowledge exchange, and collaborative projects
- Surfaces the voices and wisdom of Indigenous bee stewards who hold ancestral knowledge about hive health, honey harvesting as ceremony, and the spiritual intelligence of pollinators
- Hosts convenings, from small online gatherings to larger festivals, that bring the community into shared purpose
- Partners with organizations like Save the Bee (savethebee.org) whose work in habitat restoration, beekeeper support, and bee research aligns with our values
THE COLLECTIVE
Stewarding the Land Together
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The Ecology Center
Regenerative agriculture · ecological stewardship · education
theecologycenter.orgA regenerative organic farm and education center in San Juan Capistrano, California, and a hub for Southern California’s ecological movement since 2008. The Ecology Center brings the farming systems, expertise, people, and operational capacity to steward landscapes at this scale.
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San Pedro Institute
Conservation · cultivation · research · education
Devoted to the conservation, cultivation, research, and stewardship of San Pedro. SPI will steward its living collection on Stewardship Site land, with The Ecology Center as its farming partner.
Governance
The Stewardship Council
The Collective is guided by the Stewardship Council, an advisory group of boots-on-the-ground bee stewards, Indigenous beekeepers, pollinator scientists, and people with land and conservation experience. They hold ALVARA accountable and inform how we source, operate and show up for the bees.
The Council advises on our sourcing relationships, our giving priorities, and our educational programming. It also guides how we enter into relationship with land, whether that is a partner's property, shared land, or our own. It operates in the tradition of an inclusion council: participants are experts in their domain, trusted to challenge us and guide us.
We are here to steward this land, to cultivate a pollinator haven, to tend the hives, to grow what the soil wants to grow, and to hold a beautiful space for our community to gather and co-create.
Giving Priorities
Guides the allocation
Education
Shapes programming and content
Land
Guides how we enter into relationship with land
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Collective Governance
Council members participate in decisions about the land, its use, its care, and its future, and recommend the structures that protect it best.
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Rooted in Proven Models
We draw from land trust, conservation co-tenancy, and cooperative stewardship frameworks already working across the world, and we honor what works.
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Stewardship Over Ownership
We are here as stewards. The land's long-term flourishing guides every decision, economic, ecological, and communal. Ownership is a tool in service of that, never the point.
Initiative Two
The Tithe
Every jar of MycoNectar™ is made possible by bees. That relationship carries a responsibility, not as a marketing gesture, but as a core operating principle.
ALVARA commits 5% of pre-tax revenue to the STH Collective, directed to the organizations, researchers, and beekeepers doing the most essential work for pollinator vitality on the planet. This isn't a donation. It's a tithe: a structured, ongoing act of reciprocity built into how we operate.
Where the Tithe Flows
Habitat Restoration
Funding the planting of biodiverse native flora that nourishes healthy bee populations
Indigenous Beekeeping Initiatives
Supporting communities who maintain traditional relationships with native bee species
Hive Vitality Research
Contributing to studies on natural immunity, vibrational health, and regenerative practices
Native Pollinator Conservation
Protecting stingless bees and Indigenous species whose wisdom is ancient
Educational Programming
Funding workshops, resources, and documentation of traditional bee knowledge
Stewardship Sites
Funding hives, habitat, and programming on land held by partners who invite us in
Sourcing as Stewardship
The tithe is only part of our reciprocity model. We source exclusively from regenerative beekeepers who approach harvest as exchange, not extraction, and who practice methods that enhance rather than deplete hive vitality. Our sourcing partnerships are long-term, direct, and built on fair compensation that honors the true value of this work.
Initiative Three
The Movement
Most people know honey is good for them. Many have heard that bee colonies are in crisis. Very few have been invited into a deeper relationship with the intelligence of the hive: the beauty, the mystery, the science, the wisdom.
That invitation is what STH extends. Through our brand channels (social media, email, website, packaging, and events) we cultivate a community of Stewards: people who understand that the health of the hive and the health of the human are inseparable.
Brand Storytelling
Social content, emails, and labeling that shares bee wisdom, hive intelligence, and the people who tend them
Bee Wisdom Workshops
Free, accessible online learning covering pollinator sanctuaries, traditional beekeeping, honey as vibrational nourishment, and biomimicry
Indigenous Wisdom Documentation
Gathering and sharing the knowledge of traditional bee stewards before it's lost
Ceremonial Gatherings
Bringing community together through bee wisdom circles, regenerative stewardship workshops, and collaborative vision sessions
Consciousness Campaigns
Media and storytelling that shifts the cultural relationship with bees from commodity to reverence
What We Want You to Feel
We don't just want people to understand bees. We want them to feel something. Specifically: awe. The kind of open, receptive state that allows us to be more present, more alive, more connected to the web of life we are part of. Awe is the doorway. Once you truly feel it, deeper wisdom and vitality flow to you naturally.
Bees are frequency beings: sensitive to vibration, responsive to sound, navigating by the sun. So are we. The bee's world is a mirror. When we look closely at the hive, we see something about our own potential for collective intelligence, harmonic living, and regenerative abundance. That recognition is what STH cultivates.
Initiative Four
Stewardship Sites
There are people with land and no programs. There are programs with no land. Stewardship Sites are where the two meet.
A Stewardship Site is a property held by a partner who invites Stewards of the Hive onto it. We bring the beekeepers, the plantings, the structures, and the programming. The landholder brings the land and their community. Everything is set down in a written agreement first, so both sides know how the land will be used, who owns what, and how the honey and the work are shared.
What We Bring
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Hive Stewardship
Colonies placed and tended by beekeepers from our partner beekeeping communities, managed with reciprocity rather than extraction. The landholder shares in the honey.
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Pollinator Habitat
Native plantings, forage corridors, water sources, and nesting sites for solitary native bees.
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Botanical Gardens
Herb and botanical beds where the site suits it, including plants that feed future ALVARA formulations.
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Hive Houses
Small, purpose-built spaces where people can sit near the hives, listen, and slow down.
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Structures
Hive shelters, gathering spaces, and, where the landholder wants them, simple dwellings or ceremonial spaces built with low-impact methods and to local code.
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Education & Workshops
Bee wisdom workshops, beekeeping basics, regenerative agriculture trainings, and school and youth visits.
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Gatherings
Nectar Collective events: wisdom circles, nature immersions, seasonal honey gatherings, and small retreats.
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Veteran & First Responder Programs
Delivered with our Indigenous partner organizations, on sites that welcome them.
Three Ways In
Pollinator Site
Habitat plantings and native bee houses. Low cost, quick to start, and a good first step for any landholder.
Apiary Site
A Pollinator Site with managed hives, honey sharing, and occasional workshops.
Full Stewardship Site
An Apiary Site with regular gatherings, hive houses, structures, content production, veteran programming, and in some cases resident stewards living on the land.
A site can grow from one to the next as the relationship deepens.
Host a Stewardship Site
Sanctuary vision · illustrative image
THE MODEL
ALVARA Sanctuary
Every Stewardship Site is some expression of the ALVARA Sanctuary: the hives, the habitat, the gardens, the gatherings, the quiet places to sit with the bees. The Sanctuary is where all of it lives on one piece of land, and it is the future home of ALVARA. It is the picture we work from, and each site we steward brings us closer to it.
An Invitation
Become a Steward of the Hive
When you integrate MycoNectar™ into your life, you enter a system of reciprocity. Your purchase supports regenerative beekeepers working in right relationship with the bees. It funds the organizations on the front lines of pollinator vitality. It sustains the education that draws more people into relationship and stewardship.
And it connects you to a community of humans who understand what the hive has always known:
Harmony emerges from devotion to the whole.
Stewards of the Hive is an initiative of ALVARA Holdings, Inc. Contact us for current program details.