A workshop on 'Pollination and Threats to Pollinators', funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Royal Society (UK), was recently hosted by the University of Pretoria (UP).
 
The workshop was organised by Prof Sue Nicolson (UP Department of Zoology and Entomology) and Prof Geraldine Wright (Institute of Neuroscience, University of Newcastle). Excellent presentations were delivered by six speakers from the United Kingdom, one from Israel, one from Germany, six from other South African universities, and seven from UP (mainly members of the Social Insects Research Group).

The broad topics covered were mechanisms of attraction and reward of pollinators, ecology of plant-pollinator interactions, landscape issues and threats to pollinators, especially honeybees.

The primary objective of these workshops (known as SA-UK Scientific Seminars) is to promote collaboration between South Africa and the United Kingdom. It is expected that several new collaborative research projects on pollination will result due to this workshop. In addition, a special feature on pollination for the journal, Functional Ecology, will be written.