Fabiana going live on Instagram to discuss pollinators
What if all pollinators were in quarantine?
This is a new science communication and outreach initiative started by the Guardians of Chapada and Sertões, which aims to bring pollinators closer to the public by organising live events on social media.
During lockdown, the human world completely changed as we were forced inside our homes. Our goals and priorities have completely changed, causing many of us to reflect on our lives and careers. This also applied to researchers and consevationists, many of who were forced to stop fieldwork, pause their research and reduce teaching. The consequences of this for long-term conservation, networking and research remain unclear. This was discussed by Corlett et al. (2020, Biological Conservation) who also called us to think how we can adopt education, maintain research and adjust communication and networking. This gave rise to one initiative in Brazil.
In Brazil where most scientific research is funded by public resources, scientists feel responsibility to share their knowledge with the public and this feeling, along with the call for action by Corlett et al., initiated a public debate about biodiversity and ecosystem services. This initiative brings scientists from INCT IN-TREE (a SUFICA partner, discussed in an earlier post) together to deliver presentations every Thursday. These events started at the end of May and are ongoing.
To date (26/06/2020), the initiative has a diverse audience of over 1600 followers of students, farmers, beekeepers, teachers, politicians and other scientists!
Next week, A SUFICA co-investigator, Fabiana Oliveira da Silva (INCT IN TREE) and Joice Reis (IF-Baiano e INCT IN TREE) will be live talking about how we can help pollinators within agricultural landscapes. In previous weeks, conservation within landscape and urban environments were discussed.
To find out more, stay up to date and watch the live events, head over the Guardians of Chapada and Sertões Instagram profile (@guardioesdachapada). Live events take place every Thursday at 1700 Brazil time (2100 UK time).
UPDATE 10th JULY 2020 – MORE TALKS ANNOUNCED
From this week, every week will see a different scientist give a talk on pollinator management and their conservation.
Talks will include:
- bee vectoring in agriculture
- vertebrate pollinators
- pollinator declines and pesticides
- toxic plants for bees
- invasive bee species and their impacts
- management of social and solitary bees for pollination
We would like to thank Caren Souza for providing information about this initiative which was used to write this post.
Corlett RT, Primack RB, Devictor V, et al. Impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on biodiversity conservation [published online ahead of print, 2020 Apr 8]. Biol Conserv. 2020;246:108571. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108571
Natalia Zielonka
29.06.20