People, Plants and Pollinators: Uniting Conservation, Food Security, and Sustainable Agriculture in East Africa

A major challenge facing both social and development issues across the world today is that of meeting not just food security, but nutritional security for a rapidly growing human population. This is the reality against which many decisions around conservation will need to be made. An overlooked "free" ecosystem service, pollination, is essential to both crops and most terrestrial habitats with some 80% of angiosperms dependent on wild pollinators. In developing regions like Eastern Africa, pollinators are primarily wild insects that travel between farms and natural habitat, and are extremely vulnerable to habitat loss and destruction. Pollinators make a direct connection between wild species and food security. Conserving pollinators provides a platform for increasing nutritional security and connecting small-scale agriculture with conservation and management of natural habitats. This chapter highlights some case studies showing the links between wild pollinators, natural habitat, and rural farmers.