UAE calls up ‘citizen scientists’ to improve environmental research

Experts at the Eye on Earth summit said that the citizen scientists can provide invaluable information that can improve and better understand the environment.

ABU DHABI // Industry buzz-words “citizen science” are not a new concept, experts at the Eye on Earth summit said on Tuesday.

“Just to emphasise that it is not at all new, citizen science for supporting environmental decision making dates back a hundred years,” said Thomas Brooks, head of science and knowledge at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, commenting on the role of amateurs in collecting data on birds.

Achim Steiner, executive director at the United Nations Environment Programme, agreed on the importance of publicly collected data, and referred to examples such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the UK.

He said the organisation compiled data from more than a million people who “just observe birds from their garden” and report it to the RSPB.

“Based on that, they are able to produce updated maps. It’s the perfect example,” Mr Steiner said. “That’s what, I think, is the power of citizen science. We don’t have to motivate people, we just have to give them a sense that they are not alone.”

Mr Brooks said: “The publication of the field guide on the birds of China approximately 15 years ago lead to a deluge of citizen-collected data about birds, and similar things are happening in the UAE.”

The UAE recently released a field guide on birds. The EAD has also begun using an app named Collector for GIS, which allows people to collect data through their smartphones on sightings of certain species.

Razan Al Mubarak, secretary general of EAD, said the appeal for citizens in the UAE and around the world to contribute to science came out of a need to make a positive change.

“Ultimately we could be heads of large international organisations or smaller local authorities, but we are importantly all people who live on a planet that is intrinsically in danger,” she said. “Technology today enables people to engage.”

Mr Steiner said the beauty of citizen science was that it connected people. “People by nature are not disinterested in what is happening around them and in their environment. What they often feel is a sense of powerlessness and isolation from others,” Mr Steiner said.

“What you see with a thousand others is a picture and that picture begins to change things, and that is power,” he said.