was a 4,000km long pathway that linked the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific most agree that it runs from the coast of Brazil There are thought to be three starting points to the trail in Brazil: São Paulo for decades people have been trying to figure out who built it Arléto Rocha has spent considerable time researching the pathway and has guided on the route He wrote that though the pathway may have been a transcontinental trail there are several offshoots from the main route These smaller pathways interlink and once led to indigenous settlements “We’re continuously going to have [new] theories Sureness about the total course of Peabiru is troublesome on the grounds that it changed over the long haul,” Brazilian palaeologist Claudia Parellada explains Photo: The Disruptive Quarterly Some researchers think the trail dates back 10,000 years There is also a handful of more out-there theories that the Vikings or Thomas the Apostle created the route It has a spiritual aspect; it follows the rising and setting of the sun paradise (Yvy Marãey) is located across the water where the sun rises Their legends describe the interlinking paths as a reflection of the Milky Way The complex network of pathways links the Guarani search for paradise to the Incan Empire Though the path had a divine meaning to the Guarani people After Portuguese sailor Aleixo Garcia was shipwrecked in 1524 he traveled the route with a force of 2,000 Guarani people Historians believe that he reached the Incan region almost 10 years before Francisco Pizarro As legends of precious metals and minerals reached Europe many more Europeans descended on the trails Many of the paths are now covered by thick vegetation or new towns and roads have destroyed them the Government of Paraná has started bringing the pathway back to life Workers on the Caminhos de Peabiru project started by researching the historical They are in the process of opening a 1,550km segment that will pass through 86 municipalities and 29 administrative districts The Peabiru Path will split into three branches the first will run 800km from Paranaguá to Peabiru the second 450km from Peabiru to Foz do Iguaçu and the third will take you from Peabiru to Guaíra They are mapping trails of varying difficulty along the original pathways they have chosen trails that pass dramatic waterfalls Guto Silva commented: “The Incas and the Guarani communicated through this trail in the period known as Before Christ it was the land without evil and for the Incas it was the way to search for the source of the sun Rebecca McPhee is a freelance writer for ExplorersWeb Rebecca has been writing about open water sports Rebecca worked as an Editorial Assistant at Taylor and Francis Based in the UK Rebecca is a science teacher and volunteers for a number of marine charities Sign up to receive ExplorersWeb content direct to your inbox once a week Planet Bee co-founders (clockwise from upper left) Takeo Tokunari want to make the sustainable practice of traditional beekeeping a more economically attractive endeavor for people living in the Amazon rainforest deforestation has wiped out nearly 200,000 square miles of the Amazon rainforest according to a study by the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network Some deforestation is driven by poverty; residents of remote under-resourced communities clear acres of rainforest to grow crops or raise cattle because they often have no other way to provide for their families It is a massive problem that may have a tiny solution—bees a startup launched by four Harvard students is working to make the sustainable practice of traditional beekeeping a more economically attractive endeavor for people living in the rainforest “Bees require pollen from flowers to produce honey, and resin from trees to build their hives, so they are dependent on the rainforest,” said Takeo Tokunari, a student in the Master’s in Design Engineering Program, offered jointly by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Graduate School of Design that provides a motivation to keep the forest which would contribute to reducing deforestation.” Tokunari identified beekeeping as a potential solution to rainforest deforestation in “Contemporary Developing Countries: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Intractable Problems” (GENED 1011) he worked on drought-resilient agriculture projects in Kenya and India with a Japanese biomass upcycling technology The work fueled his passion for creating lasting social and environmental impacts through technology and business He partnered with MDE classmate Kelsey Burhans, who has expertise working in the social enterprise sphere in Bolivia and Peru. They were joined by MDE classmate Jenny Jiang, who leads product management, and Tomohito Okuda, an MPAID/MBA candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School and the MIT Sloan School of Management These beekeepers showcase the wooden hive box that is currently used for keeping melipona bees The team joined forces with the Peabiru Institute a Brazilian nonprofit that works in the Amazon region to strengthen social organization and improve biodiversity Peabiru leases bee hive boxes to families in the rainforest and Planet Bee wants to optimize their beekeeping process a species of stingless bees native to Central and South America beekeepers don’t need special equipment to handle them if shipments are delayed due to transportation bottlenecks that plague remote areas of the Amazon those delays will have less impact on the beekeepers’ revenue Planet Bee seeks to redesign the hive box so it is portable They also plan to incorporate temperature and humidity sensors and an image classification system so beekeepers could more easily assess the health of the hive we can help them scale up more easily and understand the factors that are contributing to success,” Burhans said “Planet Bee and Peabiru are seeking to augment local knowledge This is intended to be a collaborative effort with the communities which uses data and research-driven training to make helpful suggestions and part of that research is incorporating traditional knowledge networks.” Honey from these melipona bees is a highly-valued product often used in eye drops and skin medicines and can sell for 10 times as much as common apis honey and Planet Bee plans to create new markets for a growing harvest which is typically sold as eye drops or skin medicines can sell for 10 times as much as common apis honey in Mexico By finding new customers and creating connections to lucrative markets outside the Amazon the founders hope to dramatically improve the amount of income beekeepers can earn But there are many hurdles to overcome before they reach that stage The Amazon rainforest lies within the borders of nine countries What works in one nation may not work in another “There are so many different dialects that are spoken in the Amazon so making something that is inclusive of different spoken languages and literacy levels is a challenge,” she said “And collecting hive data has its difficulties people have to travel to the next town to connect to WIFI or even charge their phones.” The Planet Bee team hopes to give beekeepers in the Amazon rainforest more lucrative markets to sell the honey from melipona bees Tokunari, Burhans, and their teammates are no strangers to tackling tough problems—it is exactly what they’re being trained to do in the MDE program. They are also taking advantage of the many entrepreneurial resources available in the Harvard Innovation Labs The co-founders hope to raise initial seed funding so they can prototype hive box designs and develop software to gather and organize data Planet Bee recently received a $5,000 grant from the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program the team plans to begin approaching potential honey customers in search of new markets “I’m enjoying the ride we’re on now—it is a lot of learning and meeting fascinating people this is so exciting because it could have a lot of ripple effects like influencing regulations or land rights for indigenous people as well as female empowerment,” Burhans said “A lot of our beekeepers are going to be women so this is huge in boosting their ability to be autonomous and navigate in the world We are protecting the environment and we’re protecting the ability of people to live dignified I think that is a really promising and beautiful thing that can come out of this.” Will compete for share of $517,000 in prize money Startup produces millions of mini-lenses for consumer electronics