Dr Eardley and his team will monitor bees and collect biodiversity data to help determine the conservation status of bees in South Africa.  In addition to data collection, the project seeks to foster a local awareness of bee biodiversity and the integral connection with plants and plant biodiversity.

With over 1,000 bee species native to South Africa, the Building Bee Taxonomic Capacity among Citizen Scientists in South Africa project will engage a growing and dedicated group of local citizen scientists, students and academics to assist in identification and collection. Materials and training will be created to enable correct identification of bees at family, genus and species levels (all families, most genera and selected species).

Photos: Dino Martins

iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bees-of-south-and-southern-africa

The main activities are:
1. Training 20 para-taxonomists in solitary bee identification (Biannual bee identification courses in Johannesburg/Pretoria and Cape Town, over three years (six courses in each city).
2. Publishing material for bee identification (Three field guides to encourage bee monitoring, species documentation, and unique plant associations)
3. Encouraging the monitoring bees to determine their conservation status
4. Creating awareness of bee biodiversity
5. Training through hosting a special session that’ll be of interest to citizen scientists at the Twelfth International Symposium on Pollination, in Cape Town, 2023

Connal Eardley has over 43 years of experience with biodiversity and pollinator research projects. He has over 50 taxonomic publications in peer reviewed journals and book chapters and is lead author in the IPBES document Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production. Eardley has produced a Catalogue of Afrotropical Bees and built up the entire ARC bee collection of about 50,000 specimens. He is Vice Chair of the International Commission for Plant-Pollinator Relationships (ICPPR), is chair for the Twelfth International Symposium on Pollination (ISPXII) and a member of the IUCN Wild Bee Specialist Group. Eardley earned his Ph.D. at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.