How many countries have made good use of Citizen Science and iNaturalist in their National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plans NBSAP and if not, why not ?
I’m looking at some of the plans especially in Africa where I live to see how often Citizen Science, Community Science and iNaturalist pop up. Surely, Governments in Africa could make very good use of CS and iNaturalist in fostering interest in, appreciation of, concern for, enjoyment of and participation in biodiveristy monitoring and documentation by college Biology, Environmental Science, Forestry, Fisheries and Agriculture students as well as the public. However I suspect that in many countries there is no or very little support for Ciitizen Science and iNaturalist by museum and herbaria staff, Biological Science lecturers and profs, Wildlife and Conservation staff and National Taxonomy Committees and Science Education Officers, Why the lack of interest by Government organisation and the formulators and implementors of NBSAPs ?
What can iNaturalists do to reverse this unfortunate situation and get iNaturalist and Citizen Science integrated into the plans and their implementation ?
What are the success stories of NBSAPs making good use of inat and CS and what are the failures ?
Here are examples of plans lacking any mention of CS or iNaturalist.
1 Rwanda
https://www.fao.org/faolex/results/details/en/c/LEX-FAOC148253
2 Papua New Guinea
https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/pg/pg-nbsap-v2-en.pdf
3 Barbados
https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/bb/bb-nbsap-v2-en.pdf
4 Fiji
https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/fj/fj-nbsap-v2-en.pdf
5 Botswana
https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/bot155279.pdf
6 Tanzania
https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/tan170299.pdf
I’m glad to see that South Africa mentions Citizen Science 20 times in its latest NBSAP.
https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/saf163700.pdf
Page 50 has the comment
‘South Africa has a number of successful citizen science programmes that have gone a long way to both harnessing knowledge and deepening environmental literacy in the public arena. Strengthening the work of these programmes is a priority.’
It’s great to see S Africa is on track. Perhaps other countries shall soon emulate S Africa.
Perhaps an analysis should be done to find out which countries also mention or fail to mention GBIF in their plans.
We can lobby relevant government departments to try to encourage them to adopt and promote CS and iNaturalist as rank-and-file iNaturalists. However would it be more effective if top managers, the movers and shakers in the iNaturalist organisation took on the lobbying role and told us of their success stories ?
Perhaps lobbying for the incorporation of CS and iNaturalist could focus on this event coming soon.
---------Regional Dialogues on National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans for African Countries, 30 May to 2 June 2024, Nairobi, Kenya
https://www.cbd.int/notifications/2024-016
I look forward to hearing more about success and failure stories about the adoption of Citizen Science, Community Science or INat in NBASPs.
Are there any reasons why the planners do not incorporate, value and promote Citizen Science ?
Thank you.