Social license through citizen science: a tool for marine conservation

Kelly, Rachel; Fleming, Aysha; Pecl, Gretta T.; Richter, Anett; Bonn, Aletta

doi:10.5751/es-10704-240116

Cited by 46 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…The survey questions built upon previous marine citizen science research (i.e. [35]) and were developed in the context of the Ten Principles. The survey instrument included a mix of multiple-choice (i.e.…”

Section: Methods (A) Survey Design and Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this way, citizen science can provide a bridge between science and society [67]. Participation in marine citizen science can improve learning by 'doing', and enhance marine citizenship, stewardship and ocean literacy [8,35,68]. Citizen science can improve participants' self-efficacy around conserving the ocean, when their actions contribute to marine conservation and citizen scientists potentially feel empowered to contribute further to marine conservation and sustainable use [34].…”

Section: (B) Marine Citizen Science For Marine Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Just over half of the projects in this survey made their data available as open access, shared it in open repositories and/or directly provided it to management. Citizen science projects can benefit greatly from developing broad partnerships, increasing participant recruitment, public engagement, data sharing and access to funding [35].…”

Section: (C) Power Dynamics and Partnershipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Citizen science and marine conservation: a global review

Kelly

Fleming

Pecl

et al. 2020

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Climate change, overfishing, marine pollution and other anthropogenic drivers threaten our global oceans. More effective efforts are urgently required to improve the capacity of marine conservation action worldwide, as highlighted by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021–2030. Marine citizen science presents a promising avenue to enhance engagement in marine conservation around the globe. Building on an expanding field of citizen science research and practice, we present a global overview of the current extent and potential of marine citizen science and its contribution to marine conservation. Employing an online global survey, we explore the geographical distribution, type and format of 74 marine citizen science projects. By assessing how the projects adhere to the Ten Principles of Citizen Science (as defined by the European Citizen Science Association), we investigate project development, identify challenges and outline future opportunities to contribute to marine science and conservation. Synthesizing the survey results and drawing on evidence from case studies of diverse projects, we assess whether and how citizen science can lead to new scientific knowledge and enhanced environmental stewardship. Overall, we explore how marine citizen science can inform current understanding of marine biodiversity and support the development and implementation of marine conservation initiatives worldwide. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Integrative research perspectives on marine conservation’.

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Section: Methods (A) Survey Design and Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (B) Marine Citizen Science For Marine Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (C) Power Dynamics and Partnershipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Citizen science and marine conservation: a global review

Kelly

Fleming

Pecl

et al. 2020

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…In addition to fulfilling these labor-focused, instrumental goals, citizen science also addresses socially focused, capacity-building goals by inspiring, educating, and engaging members of the public in scientific issues (Ceccaroni et al 2017). These capacity-building goals may also serve to enhance social license, the unwritten consent from the public for govern-ment or other institutions to manage natural resources, through building marine citizenship and ocean literacy among volunteers (Kelly et al 2019). To accomplish these instrumental and capacity-building goals, citizen science projects involve volunteers in one or more steps in the scientific process (Shirk et al 2012), although contributory projects, in which volunteers act primarily as data collectors, tend to be most common.…”

Section: Introduction and Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine Citizen Science: Recent Developments and Future Recommendations

Sandahl

Tøttrup

2020

CSTP

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Marine Citizen Science (MCS) is highly underrepresented in the citizen science literature, despite the instrumental (data-focused) and capacity-building (society-focused) benefits such projects offer for marine conservation. Nevertheless, the MCS literature has experienced continual growth since its first publications in the early 1990s. Few reviews have considered the developing history of MCS, and none have considered recent developments in the field. By reviewing 185 MCS papers published from 2014-2018, this study examines recent developments in MCS and offers informed recommendations for future MCS projects. Over the five surveyed years, there were significant increasing trends in both MCS publication quantity and diversity of affiliated research countries, although many tropical study regions with high observation potential remained underrepresented. Sixty-eight percent (68%, N = 126) of surveyed MCS studies focused on non-emblematic study subjects versus thirty-two percent (32%, N = 59) of studies that focused on emblematic subjects (e.g., coral reefs, megafauna, and endangered/critically endangered species found on the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN]), suggesting that the charismatic appeal of the scientific topic may not be a limiting factor to volunteer participation. Nearly 82% (N = 151) of studies failed to describe explicit hypotheses, and many studies utilizing novel data neglected to include descriptions of data quality assurance measures (25%, N = 47) in their reports, potentially fueling the credibility challenge, which citizen science research faces as a whole. Finally, only a small portion of studies (10%, N = 19) involved participants beyond mere data collection, despite the unique and diverse perspectives volunteers may bring to scientific research. Collectively, these results aid in forming a set of recommendations for future MCS projects seeking to improve the quality of their credibility, study design, and volunteer contributions through explicitly stating hypotheses/quality-insurance methods, considering the potential of non-emblematic study species/ smartphone applications, and designing projects that allow for a spectrum of volunteer participation in high-observation potential areas.

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“…Importantly, CS data have been a cornerstone for natural resource management and nature conservation (e.g., McKinley et al 2017, Hyder et al 2015Chandler et al 2017;Kelly et al 2019). CS offers the possibility for interaction not only with science, but also with policy, e.g., by "offering enhanced levels of participation in assessing (and determining) the success of EU environment policies" (European Commission 2013a, p.4).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%