Conserving biodiversity and enhancing food security: the role of birds and bats as suppressors of rice insect pests in West Africa

Feeding a rapidly increasing human population in an environmentally sustainable way poses a major global challenge. Efforts to maximize crop yields are fuelling agricultural intensification, exacerbating the global biodiversity crisis. One way to increase agricultural production is closing existing yield gaps through ecological intensification by including ecosystem services and using nature-based solutions in agricultural management.

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Our main goal is to assess the relative contribution of bat- and bird-mediated suppression of insect pests of rice and to provide an economic valuation of their ecosystem services.