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    The community-conservation conundrum : is citizen science the answer?

    Galbraith, Mel; Bollard-Breen, B.; Towns, D. R.

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    Date
    2016-10-31
    Citation:
    Galbraith, M. P., Bollard-Breen, B., & Towns, D. R. (2016). The Community-Conservation Conundrum: Is Citizen Science the Answer?. LAND, 5(37), pp.1-16. doi:10.3390/land5040037
    Permanent link to Research Bank record:
    https://hdl.handle.net/10652/3763
    Abstract
    Public participation theory assumes that empowering communities leads to enduring support for new initiatives. The New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy, approved in 2000, embraces this assumption and includes goals for community involvement in resolving threats to native flora and fauna. Over the last 20 years, community-based ecological restoration groups have proliferated, with between 600 and 4000 identified. Many of these groups control invasive mammals, and often include protection of native species and species reintroductions as goals. Such activities involve the groups in “wicked” problems with uncertain biological and social outcomes, plus technical challenges for implementing and measuring results. The solution might be to develop a citizen science approach, although this requires institutional support. We conducted a web-based audit of 50 community groups participating in ecological restoration projects in northern New Zealand. We found great variation in the quality of information provided by the groups, with none identifying strategic milestones and progress towards them. We concluded that, at best, many group members are accidental scientists rather than citizen scientists. Furthermore, the way community efforts are reflected in biodiversity responses is often unclear. The situation may be improved with a new approach to data gathering, training, and analyses.
    Keywords:
    ecological restoration, citizen science, monitoring, conservation volunteering, New Zealand, wicked problems
    ANZSRC Field of Research:
    050202 Conservation and Biodiversity
    Copyright Holder:
    Authors

    Copyright Notice:
    © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
    Rights:
    This digital work is protected by copyright. It may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use. These documents or images may be used for research or private study purposes. Whether they can be used for any other purpose depends upon the Copyright Notice above. You will recognise the author's and publishers rights and give due acknowledgement where appropriate.
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