Tcheutchoua Romuald Chrisstial
Using ecological and sociological studies to unveil the unappreciated ecosystem services of aculeate wasps in Cameroon.
Cameroon —
Global food supplies are not sufficient to sustain our growing human populations ; current use of chemicals to control crop pests is unsustainable for human health and biodiversity and the development of resistant pest populations is jeopardizing the sustainability of crop production. There is an urgent need for more sustainable pest control methods accessible and affordable for developing regions, and better attitudes to living with nature.
Social wasps are effective bio-control agents for regulating arthropod crop pests and thus have an important role to play in sustainable food production, this maybe especially so for subsistence farmers in rural communities of developing countries where there is poor access to safe and effective pesticides; this project thus takes the crucial first step towards generating the baseline social and ecological data that is required to change people’s attitudes and effectively harness the ecosystem services of these insects as a sustainable contribution to food security. This will provide evidence for wasps to be viewed (and used as) a sustainable tool by rural small-scale farmers in Cameroon and other similar agroecology regions/countries.