Across Australia and globally, citizen scientists are playing a crucial role in the conservation of species by recording sightings, surveying landscapes, and collecting samples. These dedicated volunteers contribute immensely to wildlife conservation efforts, undertaking tasks of varying scales. Wildlife ecologists, in particular, owe a great deal of gratitude to this volunteer force.
Citizen scientists are individuals from all walks of life who, despite not necessarily being experts, engage in scientific research. In Australia alone, over 100,000 citizen scientists are active participants. Remarkably, Australia ranks as the third-largest contributor to the global citizen science platform, iNaturalist, despite having a relatively small population. This level of engagement is indeed impressive.
A key area of interest has been understanding how the data collected by citizen scientists influences the decisions made by governments and conservation organizations regarding species at risk of extinction and the measures required for their conservation.
Species extinction risk assessments are among the primary tools used to conserve biodiversity. These assessments enable scientists and decision-makers to evaluate how threatened a species is and to devise the most effective strategies for its protection. Given the vast amount of biodiversity data collected by citizen scientists, there is significant potential for this information to enhance the accuracy of species assessments. However, the question remains: how effective is citizen science data in achieving this objective? Recent research aimed to address this question.
While there is room for improvement, it is essential to acknowledge the substantial value of citizen science data. The contributions of citizen scientists are invaluable to the field of conservation.
The first step in this research involved categorizing the types of data collected by citizen scientists. Five primary types were identified:
- Species Occurrence Records: Evidence that a species is present at a specific location, often documented through images or sound recordings, along with the date and time.
- Absence Records: Evidence that a species has not been observed at a specific location.
- Survey Responses: Answers to structured questions about a species and its environment.
- Physical Samples: Collection of physical samples such as scat, soil, or water.
- Oral Histories: Collected stories or oral histories, including contributions from First Nations people.
Each of these data types was then evaluated for its utility in addressing the globally recognized criteria for assessing extinction risk. These criteria are established by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an international organization dedicated to nature conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.
The findings revealed that while citizen scientists collect a wealth of data, this information often does not align with the specific requirements for assessing extinction risk according to IUCN criteria. Meeting these criteria involves more than just recording a species’ presence at a particular location; detailed information such as geographic range and evidence of population decline is also necessary.
Therefore, merely encouraging citizen scientists to gather more ad hoc observations is not the most effective approach to informing threatened species listings. Consequently, the assessment process does not always fully benefit from the valuable work being done by citizen scientists.
To better utilize citizen science data in conservation efforts, those responsible for assessing a species’ conservation status could take several steps. While this was not an explicit finding of the research, the IUCN has acknowledged the need to better integrate Indigenous and local knowledge into these assessments.
There are several ways to ensure that citizen science data is more effectively used to inform IUCN assessments, including:
- Project Planning: Designing projects from the outset to ensure the necessary data is collected.
- Structured Surveys: Encouraging citizen scientists to participate in structured ecological surveys or to collect specific samples.
- Data Integration: Combining citizen scientist data with that gathered by professional scientists.
Despite the challenges, the research also highlighted positive developments. New methods of data analysis, such as extracting population numbers, are enhancing the effective use of citizen science in conservation.
Some citizen science projects in Australia are already contributing to threatened species assessments. Two notable examples are Fungimap and FrogID.
Fungimap, with involvement from coauthor Jasmin Packer, enables members to record and map fungi through iNaturalist. These records have facilitated threat assessments for at least 13 species. Scientists have added additional data collection fields, such as habitat information, to make these records more useful for assessing species’ threatened status.
FrogID, led by coauthor Jodi Rowley, is a free smartphone app that allows users to record frog calls. Frog experts then identify the species based on the recordings. Over a million frog records have been collected in about six years. FrogID data played a crucial role in understanding frog survival following the catastrophic 2019–2020 bushfires in southeast Australia, leading to the listing of several species, including the sphagnum frog, as threatened.
In both projects, scientists review the images and sound recordings to ensure their accuracy, increasing the likelihood that the data will be included in government databases. Additionally, professional scientists guide citizen scientists on the specific information needed to assess a species’ extinction risk, ensuring that their contributions are as impactful as possible.
