The iNaturalist team is trying to do a better job of collecting, understanding, and sharing the stories of positive impacts that iNaturalist has for biodiversity, especially through organizations and policy. Have you used iNaturalist to advance specific biodiversity goals or objectives? What could other people learn from the experience? What worked and what didn’t?
Some of the iNaturalist team will be at a conference called Living Data 2025 in Bogota, Colombia in October. We’re planning a session of lightning talks (~5 min) on this topic, and anyone is welcome to submit an abstract to present in this session. The deadline is May 20. Please chime in if you’re interested in submitting an abstract!
You can learn more about conference participation options in the FAQs.
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Aside from the specific biodiversity project goals you’re collecting here, I want to highlight a much more diffuse biodiversity objective that iNaturalist excels at. I can’t count the number of times people have told me that as a result of iNaturalist, “I stop and look around me more,” “I notice life forms I overlooked,” “I’m amazed at what’s in my yard,” “I never realized I live in a hotspot” and the like. Just making the general public more aware and more appreciative of biodiversity may be the biggest benefit.
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Agreed! This particular conference is a good opportunity to highlight how iNaturalist can be used to affect change at larger scales beyond individuals, so we’re especially looking for those stories.
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please, come to Chile, is pretty close I guess!
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That was my experience in my little garden in Mejorada (Centro) in the middle of the city. 494 species in a little wild space measuring 8.4 meters by 16. Observing kept my mind humming during the pandemic and made me excited to get up each morning. 
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And please a reminder - on FB again people whining that it ‘takes them so long to ID on iNat, FB is quicker’ Identifiers are running as fast as we can, but we are all volunteers - some with day jobs, and real life commitments, or health or internet access issues. There are - no scientists employed to ID on iNat. Currently drowning in CNC!
I would lay huge value on iNat projects - an easy way to access data (whether you build the project for your own goals, or use an existing one)
From the - Is foraging conservation? - thread
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/alien-early-detection-rapid-response-s-afr
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nemba-alien-species-south-africa
Two more of many I use. South Africa has an active community of biologists on iNat.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/monospecific-plant-genera-in-s-afr
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/post-fire-s-afr
It is a way to draw together the moments when nature relights our sense of wonder!
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bees-concentrating-nectar
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Ok: post deleted–thank you flaggers!
Very gently:
Promoting benefits of “crowdsourcing biodiversity records” seems to send wrong message that i-nat is only about accumulation of large sets of uncontrolled data. It also seems to re-enforce the notion that more and more data=better data. Hopefully some of the presentations will point more in the direction of “real science” and the usefulness of i-nat as a platform to collect and share real data among the larger scientific community (not just a social media platform which pays occasional scientific dividends) These are nuances and the critique is not meant to be offensive in any way.
I would love to submit a lightning talk proposal but would I go to Bogota? Would iNat staff present it for me?
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There is a virtual participation option! I am unsure how that will work, but if you’re interested, I encourage you to submit an abstract.
The deadline was extended to May 25!
Thanks for clarifying your post! These are absolutely the kinds of examples we’re trying to highlight. The brief explanation of iNaturalist was intended to highlight the power of having many people involved in the observation process and to contrast it with efforts relying on existing “experts.” There are still so many parts of the world and taxa with such limited biodiversity that that iNaturalist’s ability to scale is part of its unique value that we hope more organizations and governments will leverage.
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