Building an interactive African platform of plant-pollinator networks to assess network resilience and strengthen biodiversity conservation, food security, and livelihoods

In a time of mounting environmental crises, Dr Beatrice T. Nganso is focused on something deceptively small, but vital to life as we know it: insect pollinators. From wild bees to butterflies, these unsung heroes are responsible for fertilising crops and maintaining ecosystems, yet their relationships with native plants across Africa remain poorly understood.

Nganso’s research tackles this gap head-on. Her project, AfriPollNet, aims to build the first open-access database mapping plant-pollinator interactions in Africa, starting in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso. With pollinators under pressure from habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change, this research could be pivotal in safeguarding biodiversity and food security for millions of people.

“We still don’t know which plants pollinators rely on in many parts of West and Central Africa,” Nganso explains. “Without that information, how can we design effective conservation strategies or protect the ecosystems people depend on?”

Scientifically, her project will trace ecological and spatial patterns in pollinator networks, identify key forage species critical to insect health, and model how these networks respond to environmental stress. In practical terms, that means determining which plants are most essential for bees and other pollinators, and where they’re being lost.

The stakes are high. Many fruits, vegetables, and nuts rely on pollination, and in rural Africa, smallholder farmers are especially dependent on these services. Yet pollinators are vanishing from landscapes altered by monoculture farming, deforestation, and chemical use. “When pollinators disappear, so does food security,” says Nganso.

What makes her approach especially powerful is its people-first philosophy. Nganso is working with youth and women in local communities, training them to use citizen science tools like iNaturalist to document pollinators and plants. This isn’t just about gathering data, it’s about building ownership and awareness.

During a project in Cameroon, she was struck by how enthusiastically secondary school students embraced biodiversity monitoring. “They took it seriously and kept going even after the training,” she recalls. “That was when I knew we had something meaningful. These young people are the future of conservation in Africa.”

If she wins the JWO grant, Nganso plans to use it to scale AfriPollNet, train a new generation of conservation scientists, and deliver policy-relevant data that can shape land use and biodiversity planning across the continent.

Her work is grounded in the belief that data should be democratised. She cites open-access biodiversity tools like GBIF and iNaturalist as hopeful developments, thanks to their ability to bridge scientific and community efforts. “They make conservation possible even in places with limited resources,” she says.

Nganso’s own journey began in a sacred forest in Ghana, where she first fell in love with bees during her master’s studies. She waited to begin her PhD until she found a project focused on pollinators and eventually found her niche studying the devastating Varroa mite, a major threat to bee health worldwide.

Today, that quiet fascination with bees drives her daily. “I wake up knowing my work can make a real difference: for ecosystems, for communities, and for the future,” she says.