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Edible insects and Food security in DR Congo

– Papy Nsevolo Miankeba, – Rudy Caparros Megido, – Christophe Blecker, – Sabine Danthine, – Paul Aman, – Eric Haubruge, – Taofic Alabi, – Frederic Francis

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1. Edible insects biodiversity : Four main orders of edible insects

Orthoptera (17.6%)

Coleoptera (9.7%)

Lepidoptera (46.7%)

Isoptera (18.6%)

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2.1. Interest 1: contribution to poverty alleviation

Men (3%)

Women (97%)

The Key people who market insects as food are mostly women ;

The income generated contributes to the well being of households;

Empowerment of women.

2. Interests

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2.2. Interest 2: contribution to food security

o 80% of the population eat at least one specie of insects5 days per month;

o The main reason of eating insects is the intake of protein and fat.

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2.3. Interest 3: contribution to preserving biodiversity and human health

Insect species are really abundant and some (in particular caterpillars) could be considered as pests;

Eating insects help reduce pressure on busmeat and footprint due to intensive livestock;

No diseases transmissible to humans (so far).

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3.1. Issues 1: No rigorous taxonomic matching - need of tools and applications

3. Issues

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There is a mine of data but scientists need training to standards and digitization tools and methods

3.2. Technology and Training gap but urgency of sharing bio-data

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3.3. Risk on threatened insect species or species eaten to extinction

Need of highly visual tools to identify them

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4.1. International collaboration (with RMCA, GBIF, …) is very Helpful

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4.1 The standards and workflow of TDWG are fruitful : please keep it on mind !

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Acknowledgments

And thank you all for your kind attention!