In this age of environmental crisis, we need a range of data and evidence-collection methods to underpin environmental decision-making and to massively scale up our action for positive change.
Well-designed citizen science can be a cost-effective and high-impact way of gathering broad and detailed information, especially over large geographical areas.
It can also be the glue that binds stakeholders around a conservation issue, builds social capital and connects people to nature.
Conservation organisations know this, and that is why over the last 30 years the number of citizen science projects in the UK has risen exponentially.
The UK Government recognises the value of citizen science and plan to incorporate it in the strategy to monitor progress against their own 25 Year Environment Plan.
This event used case studies from a variety of projects to illustrate and discuss what motivates people to get involved in citizen science, what the potential impacts of citizen science projects are, and which sections of society aren’t engaging and why?
Speakers
- Joe Pecorelli, Zoological Society of London: "Citizen science at ZSL"
- Kate Risely, formerly of British Trust for Ornithology: "Impacts of Citizen Science on Policies, People and Wildlife: why do people take part in Citizen Science projects and how are the results used?"
- Dr Hannah Joyce, The River Restoration Centre: "Measuring the Impacts of Citizen Science: Outfall Safari Case Study"
- Dr Sarah West, Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York: "Sectors of society currently under-represented in UK environmental citizen science, and what can be done to address this"
Watch the event
- This interactive online event was livestreamed to our YouTube channel
- Each online event comprises 3-4 presentations from experts on the chosen topic
- There was no charge for this event, and no need to register in advance to watch the livestream
- This event was organised by Joe Pecorelli and Dr Becki Lawson.
- The event was produced by Eleanor Darbey, hosted by Charlotte Coales and facilitated by Tendai Pottinger.
- To find out more about the speakers and their talk topics, download your Agenda and Abstracts Booklet
- Find out more about the Riverfly Monitoring Initiative.
- Re-watch the event on YouTube
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