Caterpillar consumption around the Luki biosphere reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo: actors, knowledge and pressures

The Luki biosphere reserve region is seeing changes in the local population's eating habits, including the appearance of cat-erpillar consumption. However, local peo-ple are now reporting a decrease over the years in the availability of the caterpillars they consume, but no research data on edi-ble caterpillars in the region exists as yet. Our study focused on the people involved in collecting and consuming caterpillars in this area, on their local knowledge concern-ing this food resource and on management of the caterpillars they collect. Direct field observations were conducted from Sep-tember 2020 to January 2021 together with structured surveys among 578 previously identified collectors in 22 villages, using a questionnaire. The results show that cat-erpillar consumption is a recent phenom-enon and that the people involved are mostly young and older men from all eth-no-linguistic groups living in the area. They know their caterpillars, which they refer to by a vernacular name, and identify them on the basis of morphological traits. Ten local categories of caterpillars consumed were recorded and four were identified to the species level. However, the population is not familiar with the life cycles of the cat-erpillars they consume. The collection sites are fallow lands, forests, inhabited areas and savannah lands, where the caterpillars feed on 46 host plant species belonging to 20 botanical families. Caterpillar collection is a source of human pressure on the envi-ronment as most collectors use destructive techniques. This study provides an over-view of the local dynamics concerning edi-ble caterpillars, so that they can be taken into account in developing management measures for the Luki Biosphere Reserve as well as in local development plans for the villages located on its periphery.