Citizen science projects often use social media, which is not surprising since they constitute a great opportunity to recruit, retain, and train volunteers. This study intended to quantitatively characterize the current use of social media by biodiversity- and environment-related projects and to reason on the best management practices. For this purpose, a database of projects was compiled and analyzed. The results revealed that 42% of the projects were present at least in one social platform, with Facebook being the most popular. Facebook posts were mainly intended to raise awareness and disseminating knowledge, but recruitment- and retainment-dedicated posts were also regularly shared.

Natura 2000 is the European Union’s key strategy to address the current sharp decline in biodiversity. However, according to a recent survey, most Europeans have never heard about it. The present study intended to further explore the perceptions of residents in Portugal about this network of protected areas through the nationwide implementation of a survey. Overall, 232 questionnaires were fulfilled, which showed that most respondents (n = 126, 54%) had never heard of Natura 2000. Furthermore, even the respondents who knew what Natura 2000 is were not well-informed about it. For instance, on average, they were only able to name 2.8 ± 2.2 sites within Portugal; plus, 66% (n = 65) could not correctly name any wild species that inhabited their favourite site. Surprisingly, literacy levels were not significantly correlated with the number of visits to the network (rs = 0.181, p = 0.082), and they were only weakly correlated with the frequency that the respondents engaged in ecological behaviours (rs = 0.277, p = 0.007). Overall, the current findings are in agreement with similar studies carried out in Poland that revealed that the population was poorly informed about this important network of protected areas. This scenario is especially worrisome, considering that public participation is regarded as a key factor for successful nature conservation initiatives.

Soil provides innumerable valuable ecosystem services, such as the production of food and the direct support of wildlife, by ensuring the availability of adequate habitat. However, unsustainable human activities are resulting in degradation of soils worldwide. Hence, it is of utmost importance to raise awareness about this often-overlooked environmental issue. This article presents an inquiry-based activity that challenges students to assess the ecological quality of soil in the surroundings of their classroom. Plus, students and teachers are invited to become citizen scientists by sharing their data with researchers, thus contributing to a future endeavor to map soil quality through broad geographic ranges.