From Citizen Science to Citizen Management: Suggestions for a pervasive fine-grained and operational approach to biodiversity conservation

Abstract

Citizen Science involves people as part of a scientific enquiry. However, in an age of great environmental changes, citizens are faced with degradation that affects ecosystem structure and function. Their role as drivers of change can be also relevant for biodiversity conservation. As in Citizen Science, where the citizens, properly trained, can initiate a widespread and fine-grained knowledge process, it is also possible to start a Citizen Management process, where citizens, adequately trained in problem solving, can change the state of an environmental system, with positive effects on the latter and on themselves. To prepare citizens for the acquisition of a problem solving and management paradigms, a quick meeting carried out with citizens by a senior manager as facilitator can be an opportunity to explain some basic steps: introducing them to the concept of ‘problem’, the definition of a project team and SMART objectives, the use of creativity during brainstorming, choosing an approach to the decision-making process and defining a strategy (actions, times, roles, resources, monitoring, and adaptation). According to the Hill and Westbrook’s SWOT approach, we suggest a list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that characterize the Citizen Management approach.

The Value of Citizen Participation in Technology Assessment, Responsible Research and Innovation, and Sustainable Development

“…Such an evaluation should be carried out independently of the level of participation of the respective project, and reflect both the perspective of the (academic) scientists and the citizen researchers. Our experience with participatory research projects and citizen science clearly indicates that the added value of participation is a mutual enrichment: it is not only of value for academic researchers, but also for the citizens themselves (see, e.g., [12]. In our experience from the projects, citizens understand how they can contribute and how they can interact.…”

“…We elaborate how participation generates an added value for science, as well as for the citizen scientist, and reflect on its value in light of the respective concepts. We also discuss different degrees of participation, which can range from information-only events with a "participatory touch" [9] (p. 13) to collaboration as well as co-creation processes and co-design projects with citizens as co-researchers (e.g., [10,11]) widely discussed as "Citizen Science" (CS) and more recently Citizen Management, "where citizens, adequately trained in problem solving" [12] (p. 1).…”

Beyond Protected Areas: Assessing Management Effectiveness of a Ramsar Site in Nepal

“…Further, the active mobilization of local people can also aid in research and monitoring of this Ramsar Site and its biodiversity through a citizen science approach, whereas appropriate citizen management would help tackle conservation problems at low or no cost. These strategies already have been proved successful in butterfly research and monitoring [48] and coastal wetland conservation [49] elsewhere. as well as facilitating the project implementation.…”

Humanitarian Mapping as a Contribution to Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: Research into the Motivation of Volunteers and the Ideal Setting of Mapathons

“…The closely-related term citizen management is used by [39,40]. In citizen science, properly trained citizens can participate in a widespread and fine-grained process of knowledge acquisition.…”

“…In citizen science, properly trained citizens can participate in a widespread and fine-grained process of knowledge acquisition. In citizen management, citizens adequately trained in problemsolving can change the state of an environmental system with positive effects on the system and themselves [39]. Study [40] describes this concept using the example of beach litter clean-up campaigns.…”