A quarter century of pollinator research in Cameroon: achievements and opportunities

Abstract

Pollinator research is important for supporting food security and ecosystem health. Reviews assessing global or continental-scale trends often find that data from most African countries is lacking. Yet, over the last 25 years, pollination research has grown rapidly in Cameroon, the ecologically diverse “breadbasket” of Central Africa. In this review, we synthesize pollinator research in Cameroon to date, with the aim of informing future research and policy. We summarize work along several axes (research areas, author affiliation, journal type, agroecological zone, crop coverage, and pollinator taxonomic focus) and then discuss the applied plant-pollinator work in greater detail. We find that nationally led research (133/194; 69% of studies) has focused mainly on crop pollinators and their impacts on yield, on melliferous plants and on apiculture. Research has been carried out in all five agroecological zones in the country, with the greatest concentration in the High Guinean savannah. Bees, particularly Apis mellifera, are the most studied pollinator group. International research has focused on eco-evolutionary questions in natural montane systems and along elevational gradients; main taxa studied have been Lepidoptera and sunbirds. Pollinators of wild harvested and plantation tree crops are little studied, as is pollinator health, and the influence of natural areas on pollination services. We suggest how existing work can be leveraged and/or what data is lacking to address key policy-related questions such as: pollinator trends assessments, the importance of natural areas for sustaining pollinator populations, and the impacts of pollination deficits on production.