Inventory of Entomofauna Providing Non-timber Forest Products in the Southern Part of Chad

Abstract

Exploitation of non-timber forest products such as insects, constitutes an increasingly attractive activity for many persons and provides a wide variety of nutritional and economic value products in African countries and particularly in Chad. The overexploitation of plant species, environmental degradation, bush fires, anthropogenic pressures, and other factors are putting some edible insect species in greater danger. These adverse factors, therefore, contribute to the decline of the species. These detrimental factors are contributing to the rarefaction of numerous edible insect species, which depend on different biotopes. Through the inventory of edible insect species in four southern Chadian provinces (Logone Occidental, Logone Oriental, Mandoul, and Moyen-Chari), the current study sought to improve food security. To achieve this, an entomological survey and field insect collection were carried out from April 2024 to February 2025 in sixteen (16) randomly selected subdivisions of these four provinces. Edible insect species were collected using the manual insect observation and collection method. A total of thirty-five (35) insect species belonging to five orders, namely Orthoptera (locusts, grasshoppers, crickets 54.28%), Lepidoptera (caterpillars 20%), Hymenoptera (bees 5.71%), Isoptera (termites 8.58%) and Coleoptera (Buprestes 11.43%) were inventoried in the study area. The indigenous population consumes these species. Their seasonal presence reflects an undeniable availability of protein to cover or supplement the dietary needs of the populations of southern Chad.