Citizen science and nature conservation

Silvertown, Jonathan; Buesching, Christina D.; Jacobson, Susan K.; Rebelo, Tony

doi:10.1002/9781118520178.ch8

Cited by 46 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…(3) Training and feedback: Citizen scientists contribute data because they want to make a difference and learn something new (Bonney et al, 2009;Silvertown et al, 2013;van der Wal et al, 2016). Thus, training opportunities (either online or in person), and feedback (not simply in scientific journals) can be invaluable ways of retaining and attracting citizen scientists across the globe.…”

Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Value of Citizen Science for Roadkill Studies: A Case Study from South Africa

et al. 2018

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Roads impact wildlife through a range of mechanisms from habitat loss and decreased landscape connectivity to direct mortality through wildlife-vehicle collisions (roadkill). These collisions have been rated amongst the highest modern risks to wildlife. With the development of "citizen science" projects, in which members of the public participate in data collection, it is now possible to monitor the impacts of roads over scales far beyond the limit of traditional studies. However, the reliability of data provided by citizen scientists for roadkill studies remains largely untested. This study used a dataset of 2,666 roadkill reports on national and regional roads in South Africa (total length ∼170,000 km) over 3 years. We first compared roadkill data collected from trained road patrols operating on a major highway with data submitted by citizen scientists on the same road section (431 km). We found that despite minor differences, the broad spatial and taxonomic patterns were similar between trained reporters and untrained citizen scientists. We then compared data provided by two groups of citizen scientists across South Africa: (1) those working in the zoology/conservation sector (that we have termed "regular observers," whose reports were considered to be more accurate due to their knowledge and experience), and (2) occasional observers, whose reports required verification by an expert. Again, there were few differences between the type of roadkill report provided by regular and occasional reporters; both types identified the same area (or cluster) where roadkill was reported most frequently. However, occasional observers tended to report charismatic and easily identifiable species more often than road patrols or regular observers. We conclude that citizen scientists can provide reliable data for roadkill studies when it comes to identifying general patterns and high-risk areas. Thus, citizen science has the potential to be a valuable tool for identifying potential roadkill hotspots and at-risk species across large spatial and temporal scales that are otherwise impractical and expensive when using standard data collection methodologies. This tool allows researchers to extract data and focus their efforts on potential areas and species of concern, with the ultimate goal of implementing effective roadkill-reduction measures.

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Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Value of Citizen Science for Roadkill Studies: A Case Study from South Africa

et al. 2018

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“…Online tools and resources provide a cost-effective option for that training (Ellul et al 2001;Lye et al 2012;Silvertown et al 2013;Sunde and Jessen 2013). Augmenting cyberlearning with social media tools in citizen science projects may provide opportunities to bridge seemingly divergent motivations across diverse participants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the Benefits of Online and Community Supported Citizen Science: A Case Study on Motivation and Retention with Conservation-Oriented Volunteers

Frensley

Crall

Stern

et al. 2017

CSTP

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This study explores the motivations and barriers for participation and persistence in an innovative citizen science pilot project with Virginia Master Naturalist volunteers. The project combines self-guided online training, in-person meetings, and collaboration through social networking and "mental modeling" to support on-the-ground development and execution of citizen science projects developed by participants. Results suggest that the two strongest motivators for volunteers to participate in the project were an interest in the environment and an interest in protecting a local natural resource. Our findings indicate that volunteers with more prior experience participating in citizen science projects and those with higher gross incomes were more likely to persist in the project. Our data also suggest that decisions to persist or drop out of the project were influenced by volunteers' time commitment, their ability to use the online tools, the perceived relevance of the resources, and the saliency of the project. Projects that arose from pre-existing environmental issues seemed to be more salient and may have enhanced volunteer persistence. We discuss the influence of our findings and the implications for the development of future citizen science projects.

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“…In conclusion, in recent years much has been written on communication and recruiting participants for citizen science projects (Dickinson et al 2012;Roy et al 2012;Silvertown et al 2013). However the results from our work show that working deeply on people's involvement is fundamental to increase and maintain their participation on citizen science projects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

The influence of motivational factors on the frequency of participation in citizen science activities

Tiago¹,

Gouveia²,

Capinha³

et al. 2017

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Citation: Tiago P, Gouveia MJ, Capinha C, Santos-Reis M, Pereira HM (2017) The influence of motivational factors on the frequency of participation in citizen science activities. Nature Conservation 18: 61-78. https://doi.org/10.3897/ natureconservation.18.13429 AbstractCitizen science has become a mainstream approach to collect information and data on many different scientific subjects. In this study, we assess the effectiveness of engagement and meaningful experience of participants in citizen science projects. We use motivational measures calculated from a web survey where respondents answered questions regarding to their motivation to participate in BioDiversity4All, a Portuguese citizen science project. We adapted the intrinsic motivation inventory (IMI) and considered seven categories of measurement: Interest/Enjoyment, Perceived Competence, Effort/Importance, Perceived Choice, Value/Usefulness, Project Relatedness, and Group Relatedness each of them with statements rated on a seven-point Likert scale. We received 149 survey responses, corresponding to 10.3 % of BioDiversity4All Newsletter's receivers. We analyzed for possible differences among the categories pertaining to gender, age, level of education and level of participation in the project. Finally, we assessed the different patterns of motivation existing among the users. No statistical differences were found between genders, age classes and levels of education for the averages in any category of analysis. However, IMI categories presented different results for respondents with different levels of participation. The highest value of Interest/Enjoy- RESEARCH ARTICLE Launched to accelerate biodiversity conservation A peer-reviewed open-access journalPatrícia Tiago et al. / Nature Conservation 18: 61-78 (2017) 62 ment and Perceived Competence was obtained by the group of respondents that participate a lot and the lowest by the ones that never participated. Project Relatedness had the highest value for all groups except for the group that never participated. This group had completely different motivations from the other groups, showing the lowest levels in categories such as Perceived Competence, Value/Usefulness, Project Relatedness and Group Relatedness. In conclusion, the results from our work show that working deeply on people's involvement is fundamental to increase and maintain their participation on citizen science projects. If, for initial recruitment and in countries with low participation culture, mechanisms of external motivation may be necessary, to guarantee higher levels of long term participation, citizen science projects should foster intrinsic motivations which can be done by incorporating in project design experiences of relatedness, capacity building, positive feedback and adapted participation modes.

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Citizen science and nature conservation

Abstract: If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people. Confucius 8

Cited by 46 publications

References 44 publications

Testing the Value of Citizen Science for Roadkill Studies: A Case Study from South Africa

Testing the Value of Citizen Science for Roadkill Studies: A Case Study from South Africa

Bridging the Benefits of Online and Community Supported Citizen Science: A Case Study on Motivation and Retention with Conservation-Oriented Volunteers

The influence of motivational factors on the frequency of participation in citizen science activities

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