Title
Experiences of research and behavior change for conservation through citizen science
Author(s)
Mariana Da Silva Loayza
Published
2021
Publisher
Boletín de la Asociación Boliviana de Ornitología
Abstract
Citizen science is democratizing science, increasing people's direct involvement in wildlife conservation, and increasing the scale and speed of data generation, so it has an important role to play in monitoring rapid modern environmental change and helping to address the current climate and biodiversity crises. In the Our Wild Neighbors initiative, through research, behavior change and citizen science, in urban and peri-urban areas of the city of La Paz we studied some aspects of the ecology mainly of birds and mammals, and some human dimensions of their conservation, so that residents and authorities adopt practices and policies that consider urban wildlife and the natural areas on which they depend. We will present the most interesting results of our citizen science component, including new records for the La Paz Valley (e.g., Psilopsiagon aurifrons, Phoenicopterus chilensis), new records in highly urbanized areas (e.g., Theristicus melanopis), and new records for the La Paz Valley (e.g., Psilopsiagon aurifrons, Phoenicopterus chilensis). Theristicus melanopis), records of species endemic to Bolivia in highly urbanized areas (e.g. Diglosa carbonaria), use of urban environments (e.g. Bubo virginianus, Phalcoboenus megalopterus), and scopes of behavioral changes for conservation, among others. Based on our experience using citizen science we will discuss the suitability of this approach for certain projects, how it is shaping science in Bolivia and the world, the opportunities of increased access to technology (e.g. photography, social networks, internet), our process of adapting and defining the data generation and management system, selection of recording platforms (e.g. migration from national to international such as iNaturalist) and other considerations about the motivation of participants. We will also discuss challenges in terms of data quality, potential errors, protocols, standardization, sampling effort and scale.
Keywords
conservation; democratization of science

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