From October 22 to 25, 2019, participants gathered in Nairobi, Kenya to brainstorm on Citizen Science. The specialist training workshop on Managing Citizen Science Projects for Impact under Citizen Science for Conservation in Africa. The participants shared results, ideas and experiences, aimed at strengthening the management of their Citizen Science projects, engaging citizen scientists, and using citizen science results for conservation.
Sponsored by Cambridge Conservation Initiative’s Collaborative Fund, the workshop was collaborated by Tropical Biology Association (TBA), University of Cambridge, National Museums of Kenya, British Trust for Ornithology (BOT) and Kenya Bird Map Project.
The workshop covered skills in: Engaging and motivating citizen scientist, communicating citizen science to different audiences, presenting data, publishing citizen science results, informing management and policy and using citizen science for better conservation.
Citizen Science managers from Republic of Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania were in attendance.
At the end, Straightnews contributor, Ms Victoria Orok, who attended the workshop interviewed some resource persons and filed in this report.
Dr. Rosie Trevelyan, Director, Tropical Biology Association (TBA) works in partnership with tropical countries to build expertise in biodiversity conservation and research.
What is Citizen Science?
Citizen Science really is not very difficult from real science. It is a way of collecting scientific data; the right people who just have an interest and the passion to do so. They don’t have to be trained scientist. We often call them volunteers or expert volunteers. And the great thing about Citizen Science is that it is the way we collect data which we simply couldn’t do otherwise with science.
Why Citizen Science?
I think we have questions we would want to ask in science and certainly in conservation. We would like to know the distribution of species. For example, we would like to know in fact changes over time unless we know where species are, we can’t conserve them. And scientists, on their own, just simply can’t do that. This is a question too big to be asked by the few scientists that we have. So, if we can encourage and motivate volunteers to help us, then we can collect huge amounts of data. It really is the power of the masses.
What are the challenges facing Citizen Science in Africa?
I think it is not as well known in Africa. I think sometimes people question, can we really rely on data; it’s being collected by people who aren’t trained as scientists and, of course, the answer is ‘Yes. I mean, we have a lot of local knowledge and a lot of data don’t need a lot of training to collect.
So, one of the challenges, I think it’s not recognized, is because it hasn’t been recognized; and I think in many places, some of our citizens we are working with have a lot of challenges in their day-to-day lives looking for ways to get food and we need to look after their farm and so on. So, it’s a question of how can we involve them without it being of too much of a burden on their time.
What is the status of Citizen Science in Africa and what can we do about that?
Well, now that we are just on our workshop it’s about to really increase. I think it’s got loads of potential. There are actually the people in Africa who are here on Citizen Science, so it is just has not been heard. We have only just truly started been using the term Citizen Science perhaps we used to call it community engagement or something. So, I think it is about to really take off and I think people who came on this workshop are going to be leading the way.
Mr. Anthony Kuria – Head of African Office of the Tropical Biology Association (TBA), National Museums, Kenya. He is involved in training and building capacity of people in areas of biodiversity conservation.
What is TBA?
TBA is a short name for Tropical Biological Association. This is a capacity building organisation that has its headquarters at the University of Cambridge in the UK and has an office here in the museum. Our core goals are to build capacity of Africans and conservation scientists through training, field courses, generally that is our main area.
What is this training all about?
Well, this is one of the three or four events that we will be organizing in our project called Citizen Science for Conservation in Africa. Our main aim of this workshop was to build a capacity of managers so that they can better manage Citizen Science projects or work with Citizen Scientists. Here, Citizen Science remains the public, local communities- people you do not normally call scientists in the real sense and these are people who are generating a lot of good data that can be used for conservation.
How does TBA contribute to Citizen Science?
TBA is doing its own share building capacity around Citizen Science. Like one of the things we did, we try to pool ideas so that we are able to tell the world that this work does happen. In 2016, we organised this same programme that brought together a lot of scientists and people who are working in various areas in Kenya; and that was actually the basis of the ideas of this kind of training. Then after that, what we have been trained to do, is to find opportunities where we can bring Citizen Science managers from across Africa and share ideas, expertise and experiences and just generally build their capacities so that when they go back home, they are able to implement their projects better.
Olivia Adhiambo, a trained environmental planner in Kenya and has worked with various organizations on environmental advocacy.
How can Citizen Science influence policy change in Africa?
Citizen Science is a very powerful because it provides information about scientific issues happening at the community level. It provides information right from the community and I believe that this information, if used in the right way, can influence policies at sub-national, national and regional levels. The best way that this information can be used, if it is collectively through approach decision markers, is informing them of the challenges and viable solutions to address the changes and thereafter working hand-in-hand with government officials to develop and implement the solutions.
Dr. Colin Jackson a National Director/ Science and Conservation Director of Russia and Kenya.
What is the role of Citizen Science in Kenya Bird Atlas Project?
Well, the bird atlas project could not have happened without Citizen Scientists; without members of the public who have interest and skills in bird-watching and are keen to contribute to bird conservation in Kenya. They are the main team, they are the core, they are the reason why the bird atlas is possible; and why we are able to collect data on bird distribution, bird status, bird movements, changes in population, changes in range, information on invasive species, information on migration, routes and movement timing, etc. So, a Citizen Scientist is the heart of bird atlas project and Citizen Science on its own right. It has been very successful and we have been very excited to see the involvement of many members of the public contributing variously to better it.
Dr. Ed Turner, a lecturer of insects in the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge. His work involves research and interest in understanding how habitats change, affect the environment and how affect insects in particular. It also involves looking after 1.2 million strong insect collections in Cambridge. According to him, it is a fantastic long-term resource.
Why the clarity on Citizen Science protocol?
So, Citizen Science is really exciting opportunity to understand long-term large scale changes in the environment and for people who are interested in conservation of the environment. I think it is the number one way of understanding what happens in short or maybe long-term scales.
For me, I think the key to Citizen Science is really working out exactly what your methods are, what your questions are and if you can get that right and engage with the right group of people you can work out what more are people engaged in Citizen Science; what it means is that you can collect high quality data on a scale which just wouldn’t be possible for scientists and of course it is a great way of engaging people in conservation you can know that it is the number one thing to meet the changes that happens in the natural world as it concerns species, so you have these people involved.
How can you achieve adaptive management using Citizen Science?
So, adaptive management- that is a sort of responding management to changes in the environment. It is absolutely key to conservation, because things change year to year, day to day, month to month, threats will change, the environment changes. So, we need to be out to respond to that because we cannott just be doing conservation in same ways we were five years ago or 10 years ago.
One of the ways we can do that is to get citizens involved; people who are living around reserves or around any marshy environment and get them to report on how things are changing, work with the right people to understand how things are changing.
So, I think Citizen Science is a very exciting way of getting fine scale information of how habitats are changing day to day. Certainly in the UK, one of the things that these long-term records have shown is that we have new species turning up, new things coming in, the environments or reserves have not got the same species. They may have tenure seasons- five years ago and they have different species; they have things which are equally important to conservation. Knowing this, getting citizens involved to help us report or help them report means that we can have fine scale management to ensure our reserves are still important in the future- whether they are the same as they were in the past or not- they are still important.
Is Citizen Science new in Africa?
I have been incredibly impressed with this course and it’s obviously not new in Africa to have some fantastic presentations in the last few days and a whole range of Citizen Science projects taking place right away across Africa. The next being incredibly variable in the scope in terms of the type of questions they’re asking, in terms of the chapters they are working, within the kind of people they are working and the projects; So I think NO, they are definitely not new. I think their protocol could be raised internationally, so that more publications can be coming out on this fantastic research as definitely the way it should.
Mr. Sidney Kamanzi – Kenya Bird Atlas Project Manager.
What is the aim of the project?
The main aim of the project is to map the current distribution of birds across Kenya and as well as describe their status across the country.
How do you collect data?
We collect our data through Citizen Science. You do not have to be a scientist. That basically means that any member of the public, who is able to identify birds, can just register with us. We will give you an observer number, and you will can also download the app we use for data collection which is BirdLasser. And from there, wherever you go in the country- whether you are going home or your mother’s place or you are going on a trip just for tour or whatever you are doing, whether for travelling professionally; whatever it is you are doing, you can record birds wherever you are and submit the data. And you can do this at any time of the year. In fact, we encourage people to record that as regularly as possible throughout the year so that we can be able to document things about radiation, migration, patterns and other details.
After mapping the species, what do you do with the data?
We hope to publish the data of course and share it as widely as possible.
Orok, a Field Researcher/Wildlife Conservationist is of Biodiversity preservation Center (BPC), Nigeria
