Traditional ecological knowledge of the Bakola/Bagyeli Indigenous peoples and Bantu ethnic groups associated with the floral visitors of wild fruit trees in the tropical rainforests of southern Cameroon

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) can offer insights into insect biodiversity and the pollination ecology of non-timber forest product (NTFP) species, such as wild fruit trees, because this knowledge is linked to traditional resource use by communities. However, the sustainability of this knowledge is threatened in tropical forests, and in Cameroon specifically, by habitat destruction and loss of access rights to forest resources. In order to understand place-based knowledge related to insect floral visitors, and to see how this knowledge is structured within and across ethnic groups, we worked with two groups who cohabit an area dominated by lowland secondary rainforest: the indigenous Bakola/Bagyeli who are traditionally hunter-gatherers, and the more agrarian Bantu. First we asked questions about the floral visitor species they observed on NTFPs, then we presented our informants with physical insect specimens collected on site for them to identify, and finally, we asked informants who were most knowledgeable to vet the accuracy of the vernacular names obtained. A total of 30 ethnotaxa floral visitors of NTFP species were cited and described and 14 of the 18 specimens presented were well recognized by respondents. Results of generalized linear mixed models show that the Bakola/Bagyeli can list more ethnotaxa of floral visitors than the Bantu but that this knowledge is more evenly distributed across age, gender and ethnicity with respect to specimen recognition. Thus, there is ethno-entomological knowledge within these communities that could be applied towards insect conservation work.