Gonçalo J. Costa

My work in Guiné-Bissau aims to help cashew farmers better cope with climate change, fluctuating market prices and emerging insect pests. Cashew is about 90% of the country’s exports, making our work even more pressing.

My PhD studying cicadas led me to Morocco, where I described two new species for the country, but many more are awaiting formal description. In the meanwhile, the encroaching Sahara, climate change are slowly, but surely eroding their habitats. One solution we are working on are micro-reserves that can help cicada conservation in the short to mid-term, but only with the locals’ help are the cicadas truly able to weather the storm.

My most recent project is my startup, located in Portugal that produces crickets for human food, based on a circular economy framework. My two other projects either protected them or protected against them, but this one downright eats them! Insects are nutrient-packed and with around 2000+ species eaten around the world, insects offer an exciting venue for gourmands abound. But the real value comes from having them eat what we consider waste!

When I was very young, I remember watching a documentary about the Amazonian rainforest where a scientist plucks an insect from a shrub and declares that it was a new species! I was beyond elated! I have loved insects since a young age, but I quite didn’t know how to name it.  I remember spending recess just looking at the shape of pill bugs and how they wound up into a ball, the “marias-café” millipedes that smelled awful or the scurrying beetles escaping my inquisitive gaze, or that day I saw a magnificent mantis! I looked at the title of the documentary scientist – “entomologist ”. And it was at that moment I knew how to name my passion!