Executive Director Mpala Research Centre Laikipia, Kenya
Understanding Insect Declines: Challenges and Opportunities Across the African Continent.
Insects are an essential part of the ecology, livelihoods and daily life for hundreds of millions of people across Africa. While a large number of scientists work on ecology and wildlife in Africa, only a very small fraction work on insects. There is a wide consensus among ecologists and entomologists in Africa that insect faunas, patterns and abundance are undergoing change, as is most of the regions’ biodiversity. Understanding these changes require both spatial and temporal data and many more field-based efforts across a wide range of ecological and economic systems. Opportunities for understanding insects and their diverse roles in ecosystems undergoing change include better and more effective training of scientists at all levels, developing and widening citizen science efforts, creative use of historical information in natural history museums and collections and robustly engaging with the issues that have created inequity in access to and representation within entomology historically.
