Citizen Science: A New Approach Towards Monitoring National and International Biodiversity

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In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern. The emergence of COVID-19 has shown that when we destroy biodiversity, we destroy the system that supports human life. The more biologically diverse an ecosystem is, the more difficult it is for a pathogen to quickly spread or dominate. Loss of biodiversity provides opportunities for pathogens to cross between animals and humans. We need to learn and adapt faster than ever, and the COVID 19 virus has lessons that apply to the global crisis of biodiversity loss. For this reason, our best vaccine for the future is to protect nature and biodiversity. It is no longer just about ecology, but about knowing that if we want to limit the occurrence of pandemics, we must have a healthy nature. The legal status of wildlife was not recognized in a single day, but it took many years of history to gain global support through political, social and scientific. It is necessary to know the current scenario of wildlife conservation and protection at the national and international levels. Protecting wildlife and natural habitats is increasingly important in the 21st century. Destruction and loss of natural habitats, illegal exploitation of wildlife, over exploitation of resources and lack of conservation awareness have a negative impact on biodiversity and ecosystems. To meet collective commitments to protect and monitor biodiversity, it is essential that the world's governments and NGOs, as well as the research community, use all possible sources of data and information, including new, rapidly growing sources such as Citizen Science (CS), in which volunteers participate in some or all aspects of the environmental assessment. They use the Essential Biodiversity Variable framework to describe the range of biodiversity data needed to monitor progress towards global biodiversity goals and to assess strengths and gaps in geographic and taxonomic coverage. In particular, Citizen Science data provides extensive data on species distribution and population abundance, species characteristics such as phenology, and ecosystem function variables such as primary and secondary productivity. Most Citizen Science programs are located in Europe, North America, South Africa, India and Australia. Successful Citizen Science programs would facilitate the scaling up of current efforts, strengths in data coverage could be better utilized, and strategies that could maximize synergies for biodiversity monitoring. This paper explores the origins of Citizen Science and its evolution over time and also looks at the current scenario and future challenges and opportunities for Citizen Science.

Keywords

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Devidas & Rane. (December,2022). Citizen Science: A New Approach Towards Monitoring National and International Biodiversity. IPEM LAW JOURNAL, 6, 74-78.