A new study highlights how the involvement of citizens is key to the success of global efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. To ensure this, the research identifies ways to increase citizens’ participation in monitoring biodiversity.

The study, published in Nature Sustainability, quantifies how citizens can help to monitor progress towards achieving the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It defines “citizen involvement” as referring to the participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and other citizen groups.

It finds that involving these groups could:

• Improve the collection of 51 per cent of the data needed
• Improve the analysis as well as the collection of 30 per cent of information needed. This involves community members monitoring environmental changes, then giving their perspectives on what is happening and what needs to be done. These recommendations can range from local bylaws governing the use of resources to international policymaking processes.

To find out where citizen engagement would be most beneficial, researchers assessed 365 indicators that summarise environmental and socio-economic information across the scope of the Global Biodiversity Framework. These indicators include estimating the overall status of nature and evaluating the success of programmes to manage biodiversity. The world’s governments have agreed to use them to assess progress towards the Framework’s 23 targets and four goals.

The greatest opportunities for citizens to contribute and interpret data are on targets to reduce threats to biodiversity and to meet peoples’ needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing from biodiversity.

The analysis was carried out by experts from the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), Nordic Foundation for Development and Ecology (NORDECO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Indigenous research centres.

3 examples of community monitoring and citizen science programmes that could contribute to tracking progress under the Global Biodiversity Framework

Fishers in the Philippines

A two-and-a-half-year study tracked community monitoring and conservation action in protected areas of the Philippines. It found focus group discussions by members of community monitoring groups, Indigenous People or local villages were particularly effective in mobilising action. Local bylaws established by Indigenous People, villages and municipalities to govern resource use were the focus of 22 per cent of the 156 interventions. The study authors observed that the local bylaws tended to be more effective in changing people’s behaviour than national Philippine laws.

In one example, a community monitoring group reported a decline in fish in a bay. In response, the municipality directed that fishing with hook and line should be allowed, but the use of nets and compressors banned. This was widely respected and after only seven months the abundance of fish in the bay reportedly increased.

This could contribute data and interpretation to the indicator ‘Proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels’ under the Global Biodiversity Framework.

Hunters in Finland

In 1988, hunters in Finland developed a programme in cooperation with the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute to record information on 30 wild animals.

Twice a year 7,000 volunteers, mainly hunters, document which species they see over precisely defined areas, counting tracks in the snow in winter and animal sightings in summer. The programme is an example of how collaborations between hunters and scientists can contribute a wide range of information on the distribution, abundance and structure of wildlife populations.

This could contribute data and interpretation to the headline indicators ‘Benefits from the sustainable use of wild species’ and ‘Services provided by ecosystems’.

Citizen scientists in southern Africa

A lack of information about threatened baboon spiders in southern Africa inspired researchers to set up the Baboon Spider Atlas in 2022. This encourages citizen scientists to upload photos of baboon spiders in the wild to an online database with data about where and when the spiders were seen.

This combination of citizen science and conventional research has allowed researchers to assemble the largest database of information on baboon spiders in southern Africa.

Such programmes could contribute data to the indicator ‘Red List Index’.

A roadmap for increasing citizens’ involvement

The researchers assessed how Indigenous Peoples, local communities and citizen scientists can participate in monitoring each of the 365 indicators that were adopted in December 2022, when the Global Biodiversity Framework was finalised. Two researchers for every indicator sorted them into four groups based on how much citizen input is possible and how autonomous they can be. The categories ranged from the entire monitoring process being undertaken by citizens to all monitoring being carried out by scientists and government organisations. Independent experts with experience of on-the-ground participatory monitoring spot-checked how indicators had been categorised.

Across both developed and developing countries, headline indicators that could benefit from citizen engagement include the monitoring of fish stocks, coastal eutrophication, forest management, Red Lists for species and ecosystems, invasive species, benefits from ecosystems, proportion of human population in traditional occupations, and extent of natural ecosystems. In most cases, citizen-derived data would need to be used in combination with professional scientists’ and governmental statistical organisations’ measurements.

Traditional knowledge indicators and data collected through community-based monitoring and information systems can help governments gain a fuller picture of biodiversity trends. This analysis highlights opportunities to address data gaps to enhance understanding and reporting on goals and targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework.

Katherine Despot-Belmonte, Senior Specialist in Nature, Gender and Rights at UNEP-WCMC and an author of the study

Government agencies often have difficulties finding meaningful ways of engaging citizens in biodiversity conservation. There is a need for a ‘road map’ for stepping up citizens’ contributions to halt and reverse global biodiversity loss. This analysis of how government agencies and citizen scientists can collaborate to achieve the targets and goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework is an important first step.

DSc. Finn Danielsen, Co-founder and Ecologist at the Nordic Foundation for Development and Ecology (NORDECO) and lead author of the study

Monitoring progress towards the Global Biodiversity Framework represents a critical step towards addressing the interconnected nature and climate crises of our time. Engagement across diverse stakeholders provides our best chance to obtain accurate, context-specific information, including for the over 30 per cent of headline indicators in the Framework that require the use of spatial data in their calculation.

Anne Virnig, Strategic Advisor on Science and Policy at UNDP, co-author of the study

The paper also finds that the main constraints to citizen involvement are when indicators:

• are complex to calculate,
• require detailed knowledge of a country’s administrative or regulatory regime,
• require area-based data such as using Geographical Information System data or remote sensing,
• require a national overview, or
• require data from museums or collections.

To overcome current obstacles the researchers identify how countries’ environmental agencies can enable citizen engagement in monitoring the Framework. These include collaborating with Indigenous Peoples and local communities in Indigenous-led and community-led monitoring of local biodiversity; appointing staff responsible for citizen involvement through community-based monitoring and citizen science; promoting cooperative approaches and partnerships; creating real-time communications for community-based monitoring and citizen science (such as web portals); and co-designing guidelines and methods.

The paper’s insights will feed directly into the work of more4nature, which funded the research. More4nature is an EU-financed project that aims to strengthen conservation through citizen science in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

With more4nature, we are taking the potential of citizen science in conservation to a practical level: making citizens and communities part of the solution when ensuring that environmental protection policies are implemented and adhered to. By supporting more than160 citizen science initiatives and more than 95 authorities in Europe and abroad, we explore how to enhance the uptake of citizen-generated data and community-led actions in environmental compliance assurance.

Dr Uta Wehn, Associate Professor of Water Innovation Studies at IHE Delft, who leads the more4nature project

For further information please contact: 
UNEP-WCMC Communications Officer Natalie Taylor via natalie.taylor@unep-wcmc.org 

UNDP COP16 Media Focal Point Gabriela Goldman via gabriela.goldman@undp.org

Main image: Petrus Asuy sows seeds for forest crops in a nursery in East Kalimantan province of Indonesia, part of a community reforestation project. The knowledge of such citizen groups is an important source of information for monitoring progress towards achieving the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. (Image courtesy of Michael Eko / Climate Visuals Countdown)