Perceived social-ecological benefits of insect pollinators in Mufulira mining district of Zambia

Insect pollination plays an important provisioning and cultural ecosystem services to humans, largely contributing to food security and enhancing local people’s cultural norms. Though insect pollinators are fraught with numerous threats, such as deforestation, pesticides, anthropogenic fires and cli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of tropical insect science 2022, Vol.42 (5), p.3245-3252
Main Authors: Mulwanda, Christopher, Nyirenda, Vincent R., Namukonde, Ngawo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropogenic factors
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Climate change
Crop production
Deforestation
Ecological effects
Ecosystem services
Entomology
Farmers
Food security
Human influences
Insect ecology
Insects
Life Sciences
Norms
Original Research Article
Perceptions
Pesticides
Plant reproduction
Pollination
Pollinators
Provisioning
Rural communities
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Summary:Insect pollination plays an important provisioning and cultural ecosystem services to humans, largely contributing to food security and enhancing local people’s cultural norms. Though insect pollinators are fraught with numerous threats, such as deforestation, pesticides, anthropogenic fires and climate change, little is known about how they are perceived by local people who regularly interact with them and also affect their fate based on held local perceptions. In this study, we examined perceived contribution of insect pollinators to Murundu farming community as a case study, using semi-structured household questionnaire, focused group discussions and interviews of informants. The study revealed a mix of perceptions regarding the socio-ecological benefits of insect pollinators, and among them were crop pollination, honey and fruit production. Farmers’ knowledge of the social-ecological benefits of insect pollinators was significantly influenced by their age, level of education and duration of residence in the study area. The positive awareness levels and knowledge of social ecological benefits of insect pollination among farmers should lay a strong foundation for developing viable interventions for pollinator conservation, and a basis for future research on economic valuation of pollination.
ISSN:1742-7592
1742-7584
1742-7592
DOI:10.1007/s42690-022-00759-w