More4nature project kicks off at IHE Delft: Citizen science for environmental conservation
The more4nature project kicked off at IHE Delft recently, bringing together 21 partner organizations who will use Citizen Science to address widespread environmental degradation across Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The partners came from the United Kingdom, Bolivia, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Ukraine, Portugal and Poland to launch the four-year collaborative effort with a two-day meeting at the beginning of February.
The project will work to institutionalize Citizen Science Initiatives and enhance their role in so that they can provide relevant and valid data for use in environmental compliance assurance. Led by IHE Delft, more4nature seeks to trigger transformative change in conservation efforts.
“The core concept of more4nature is collaborative environmental compliance assurance: making citizens part of the solution when ensuring that environmental protection policies are implemented and adhered to,” said Uta Wehn, Associate Professor of Water Innovation Studies at IHE Delft and overall Project Coordinator of more4nature.
“The core concept of more4nature is collaborative environmental compliance assurance: making citizens part of the solution when ensuring that environmental protection policies are implemented and adhered to.”
More4nature celebrating World Wetlands Day
To immerse themselves in the practical aspects of citizen science related to water quality and biodiversity in the Netherlands and to celebrate World Wetlands Day, project partners visited the Biesbosch National Park, an area of ecological significance that is Europe's largest freshwater tidal wetland and part of the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance. Participants gained insights into the application of citizen science in monitoring and conserving natural ecosystems.
Sandra de Vries, a Citizen Science expert at the non-governmental organization Drinkable Rivers, briefed the more4nature project partners on the organization's mission of setting up citizen science hubs worldwide and empowering local communities through training programmes that enable volunteers to sample rivers and monitor water health. The Biesbosch is home to one of the organization’s 60 citizen science hubs in Europe. Here local volunteers are undergoing training organized by Drinkable Rivers to conduct water quality measurements.
Armed with buckets, water testing kits, and questionnaires, the project partners actively engaged in hands-on activities, contributing to the broader goal of gathering vital environmental data.
Observing biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics
On a guided walk along the riverbanks, they witnessed the unique biodiversity and dynamic ecosystem created by the constant ebb and flood resulting from the 80-centimetre tidal range at Biesbosch. Citizen science is key to understanding and preserving such fragile environments.
Project participant Gitta Kragh, of the Danish social enterprise NORDECO and thematic lead of biodiversity-related more4nature cases, said citizen science is important for ecological monitoring of commitments made by countries in the Global Diversity Framework, adopted in December 2022. The 196 countries that are party to the framework have committed to taking “urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss” by 2030, and they have committed to setting national targets to achieve the framework.
“Through the Global Diversity Framework, we have a set of targets and indicators. If citizen scientists can help us monitor 45% of these targets, it would be a really important contribution,” Kragh said.
“Through the Global Diversity Framework, we have a set of targets and indicators. If citizen scientists can help us monitor 45% of these targets, it would be a really important contribution,”
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