Citizen science can help expand farmland biodiversity monitoring efforts in support of agroecology [Practice Abstract]
Biodiversity monitoring in agricultural landscapes remains a major challenge for European policy implementation. Farmlands are spatially extensive and can be difficult to access, resulting in higher coordination costs and low participation in monitoring activities.
We synthesized experiences from a multi-country exploration of citizen science, focusing on butterfly monitoring using a 15-minute observation protocol.
Despite the interest among farmers and other actors, monitoring in agricultural areas is highly challenging and requires a solid infrastructure consisting of dedicated coordination, intermediary actors, and effective feedback mechanisms for farmers and other participants. Further barriers are identification challenges, access to agricultural sites, and high workloads, which limit the time farmers have for biodiversity monitoring.
Barriers to citizen science in farmlands are consequently much greater than in, for example, urban areas. Based on our experiences and lessons from additional farmland monitoring schemes, key recommendations are to:
1. Secure long-term funding for coordination to ensure engagement, training and guidance for the most relevant actors
2. Secure infrastructure in terms of IT (reporting app and data portal), reporting sheets and guidance materials
3. Explore alternative approaches and protocols to engage different audiences and cover a broader range of habitats
4. Link up with existing networks to synergise with their experience
5. Establish personal contact with potential participants (e.g. farmers and their families,
consultants)
6. Seek cooperation with key organizations and people who can act as mediators and
ambassadors (e.g. farm organizations, farm advisors
7. Complement the data collected by volunteers with paid data to ensure data quality and reliability
8. Invest in generating useful results, feedback and recommendations, to maximise the benefits to all involved actors.
Experience taken from Innovation Hubs in Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovenia and France, as well as from Germany.
Keywords: Biodiversity
Country: EU, Pan-Europe
