Samenvatting

Pollinator biodiversity has decreased in the past decades, but urban areas have increasingly been found to serve as a refuge when compared to the surrounding intensively managed farmland. This offers an opportunity for urban pollinator conservation to play a role in the conservation of pollinators. But research is lacking, especially in tropical and developing nations which can hamper conservation efforts. This is an issue since the ecosystem services provided by pollinators can be beneficial to developing cities such as Dar es Salaam. But like many other rapidly growing cities in the tropics, Dar es Salaam deals with a host of environmental and socio-economic issues. To mitigate some of these environmental issues, a plan was developed by the Worldbank and the Tanzanian government to transform the regularly flooding Msimbazi river into a thriving city park. Even though the addition of pollinator conservation measures within this plan can be beneficial, there is a knowledge gap regarding the most effective measures in rapidly growing cities in the tropical developing nations. To determine which urban pollinator conservation measures, have the highest likelihood of being successful the following research question was asked: Which urban pollinator conservation measures are most likely to be successfully implemented in the planned Msimbazi Wetlands and City Park in Dar es Salaam? To answer the research question, three sub-questions were used: 1. What are generally successful urban pollinator conservation measures for urban green spaces? 2. What are the constraining factors specific to developing nations in the tropics influencing the implementation of generally successful urban pollinator conservation measures? 3. Which of the constraining factors on the implementation of urban pollinator conservation are present in Dar es Salaam and how can these be mitigated or prevented? Six pollinator conservation measures were found to be successful in most of the encountered articles. The goal of these measures is to create an ideal urban environment for pollinators consisting of a well-connected network of green areas with ample amounts of nesting sites. The six measures were further researched to determine their design, implementation, and management. Of the six generally successful measures five were negatively impacted by constraining factors specific to tropical developing nations. Most of the constraining factors were socio-economic but the lack of data surrounding pollinator conservation and biodiversity in the tropics was also a significantly constraining factor in the implementation of conservation measures. The constraining factors and socio-economic conditions of Dar es Salaam were further researched and are described within the thesis. This was done to determine whether Dar es Salaam suffers from the constraining factors and whether these can be mitigated or prevented. Dar es Salaam was found to suffer from all the constraining factors in one way or another. The lack of data surrounding pollinator conservation and biodiversity in the tropics could not be reasonably mitigated in the short term. The main implication of this thesis is that it is possible to determine generally successful urban pollinator conservation measures and that these can be implemented regardless of location. The caveat is that good governance and significant community engagement are prerequisites for their successful implementation and maintenance. This thesis shows that there are six generally successful urban pollinator conservation measures that can be implemented in the Msimbazi Wetlands and City Park of Dar es Salaam. The constraining factors in Dar es Salaam can mostly be mitigated if not prevented. The most important long-term recommendations are to perform a species inventory and to regularly monitor the diversity of pollinators in the Wetlands and City Park.