Bee Pollinators Monitoring Project
Pollination is a critical plant‐animal interaction that maintains ecosystem health and function, facilitates plant reproduction, and improves crop production and human welfare. In Tanzania, most people rely on agricultural activities for their livelihoods, and a majority of cash and food crops rely on insect pollination. Of these insects, bees are the most important pollinator.
There is an increasing global concern regarding decline of pollinator population caused by land use intensification, climate change, and poor pollinator management. However, lack of empirical data on pollinator population status limits the potential for appropriate actions to halt their decline and impedes identification of links between population declines and potential drivers of such changes. In Tanzania, the situation is exacerbated by a combination of high pollinator diversity with lack of taxonomic expertise and financial resources. Furthermore, although agriculture is vitally important in Tanzania, awareness of pollinator services and application, and their importance in improving agricultural crop productivity, is either very scant or altogether lacking.
This project will help to address this gap by developing a baseline understanding of the status and trends of bee pollinators and their interactions with plant communities for Tanzania. The team predicts that this will allow for the development of more sophisticated analyses of bee foraging specialization, seasonal trends in bee species abundance and composition, and their response to climate and land use changes. Greater knowledge will allow for more informed conservation and management decisions. Additionally, through outreach and scientific publications, the team hopes to provide education on the importance of pollination and the requirements for healthy pollinator communities.