Collecting conservation impacts of citizen science

[carrieseltzer]

I’m sharing this request from the citizen science discussion listserv because I think there may be many forum readers with conservation impact stories to tell, from iNaturalist or beyond. I don’t have any involvement in this myself.

The Participatory and Citizen Science Working group from the Society of Conservation Biology is leading a new project called “Conservation Impacts of Citizen Science.” This project seeks to document the broad ranging conservations impacts and outcomes of citizen science within communities all around the world. We are looking for citizen science project managers and leaders to contribute information about the associated conservation outcomes that have resulted from their previous, or ongoing, citizen science projects. These conservation outcomes could be things such as policy changes, evidence of successful conservation management, changes to resource management programs, etc.

Please join our project at https://www.anecdata.org/projects/view/419 to help us build a more holistic picture of the tangible benefits of citizen science from around the world. Feel free to share widely with your networks!

Thank you,
The Participatory and Citizen Science Working Group from the Society for Conservation Biology

Tina B. Phillips, PhD
Assistant Director, Center for Engagement in Science and Nature
Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability Faculty Fellow
Citizen Science Association Board Member

[dull2shinetoo]

This is a wonderful opportunity to highlight the impact that even the smallest effort to modify behavior can ultimately change the human footprint on our natural surroundings. Since the 1990s, there has been considerable effort by citizens to affect water conditions of the Chesapeake Bay by local clean up, riparian buffers, and advocacy to write government policy to amend corporate and private impact on waterways that drain into the Chesapeak Bay. The research is ongoing and results are verifiable and searchable. I live in the Middle River district, one of the tributaries of the Shenandoah River, so some time ago I embarked on a campaign to clean up the roadway within my purview and ability and encourage others to do the same. I am proud to have had the opportunity to speak out and influence my neighbors to remember that what we do every day has a broader impact. Good neighbor in Verona spends Sundays picking up litter (whsv.com)