Scientists collect and collate African environmental data

The researchers in the running for the Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer grant focus on different areas, but each wants the same thing: to map a complex web of interactions with huge implications

- By Kemunto Ogutu

Levy Otwoma remembers the frustration clearly. Samples of seawater he had gathered off Kenya's coast were ready to be analysed, but they sat waiting for a permit for more than a year.

This shows how dependence on overseas laboratories can hold back African science. For Otwoma, it was like reading a book but needing permission to turn the pages.

That frustration became his turning point. His current project, Emancipate, will use cutting-edge third-generation DNA sequencing to study environmental DNA collected from seawater and sediment to provide insights into the genetic code floating in seawater. The emancipation he seeks is scientific. It is the ability to study Africa's oceans without waiting for foreign permission.

This urgency echoes across the continent. In Nairobi, Beatrice Nganso, a scientist at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, looks at a global map of bee forage plants and sees a worrying absence. Apart from South Africa, the continent is blank. "We are flying blind in Africa," she says. "Without robust data on plant-pollinator networks, we [can't] design concrete policy at the continental level that supports our biodiversity, food security and livelihood."

In South Africa's Eastern Cape, Nompumelelo Baso remembers childhood days by the riverbank while her parents did laundry. Those rivers are now at the centre of her research. "My proposal is looking at ... how to future-proof Africa's freshwater ecosystems against climate change and invasive species."

Together, the three scientists, finalists for the 2025 Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer research grant, are working in different ecosystems, but their message is the same: Africa is nearing ecological tipping points. Pollinators, fish and rivers are under pressure. If the thresholds are crossed, collapse will be sudden, livelihoods will be lost and recovery may be impossible.

Seeing what is hidden