There is increasing global concern regarding pollinator population declines related to land use intensification, climate change and poor pollinator management. However, Hymenoptera of Tanzania are poorly studied and remain underrepresented in collections. High confidence identifications are crucial for ecological and pollination studies. In Tanzania, the situation is particularly exacerbated by lack of expertise and financial resources.

In 2017, RBINS was contacted by the College of African Wildlife Management in Mweka (CAWM) to give a training in the framework of the project entitled “Monitoring pollinators in Tanzania“, for which a proposal was submitted to the JRS Biodiversity Foundation. Due to a lack of local taxonomists, the promotor of this project asked the RBINS experts J.-L. Boevé, A. Pauly and W. Dekoninck to join efforts to manage training sessions on systematics of pollinators. RBINS has a large international expertise on Hymenoptera, an important group of pollinators including bees, wasps, ants and sawflies.

Therefore, this GTI project aims to provide field trainings (two-three weeks) on bees and other pollinators for up to 25 participants, including project team members, some students, lab technicians as well as other staff members from collaborating institutions.