This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Monash University scientists have developed a global framework to tackle a major blind spot in biodiversity conservation: Insects underpin ecosystems and food production but remain largely invisible to conservation efforts across the tropics. The international study was led by Dr.
Shawan Chowdhury, head of the Global Change Ecology Lab at Monash University's School of Biological Sciences. Published in BioScience, the study brings together tropical ecology experts from around the world to identify the major barriers preventing effective insect conservation and a practical pathway to overcome them. Insects are the most diverse animal group on Earth, with an estimated 14 million to 30 million species, most of which are still undocumented.
They pollinate more than 80% of wild plant species, provide food for 60% of bird species and perform essential roles in food webs, nutrient cycling and global food production. Yet despite mounting evidence of insect declines, conservation knowledge is heavily skewed toward temperate regions, which contain only around 20% of global insect diversity. Chowdhury said this meant conservation efforts risked overlooking the regions where the overwhelming majority of the world's insect diversity is found.
"More than 80% of insect species occur in the tropics, yet these are the very places where we have some of the biggest gaps in our knowledge," Chowdhury said. "We cannot effectively conserve species if we don't know what is there, where populations are changing, or even where important existing knowledge can be found. "Insects are fundamental to functioning ecosystems and food production, but they remain dramatically underrepresented in biodiversity monitoring, protected areas and conservation policy." The researchers identified four major obstacles to tropical insect conservation: limited global visibility of existing research, major data shortfalls, inadequate research infrastructure and insufficient conservation action.
Their framework proposes combining conventional scientific research with regional and non-English literature, museum collections, local expertise, citizen science, social media observations and emerging technologies, while strengthening scientific capacity and ensuring that evidence reaches policymakers. The scale of the information gap is striking. Nearly 26% of insect distribution data held by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility comes from the United Kingdom alone, despite most insect diversity occurring in tropical regions.
"Some of the information we desperately need already exists, but it may be in a local journal, held by a regional expert, sitting in a collection or even contained in photographs shared online," Chowdhury said. "The answer isn't simply to collect more data. We need to become much better at finding, connecting and using the knowledge that already exists, while building the local expertise and infrastructure needed for long-term monitoring." The researchers demonstrate the framework using Bangladesh, one of the world's most densely populated tropical countries and a powerful example of both the challenges and opportunities.
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