We held a free symposium on “Farmers, citizen science & environmental monitoring” on the morning of Friday 13th January 2023. This event was hosted by the UKEOF Citizen Science Working Group, and organised by Michael Pocock (UKEOF/UKCEH), Jodey Peyton (UKCEH), Paul Woodcock (JNCC) and Anna Robinson (JNCC).
Speakers
- Michael Pocock (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology): Introduction
- Emmanuelle Porcher & Nora Rouillier (Natural History Museum, Paris): The Farmland Biodiversity Observatory: A French citizen science monitoring scheme to study the relationship between biodiversity and farming practices
- Theresa Bertl (Austrian Council for Agricultural Engineering and Rural Development (ÖKL)): Nature conservation monitoring in Austria
- Liz Stockdale (NIAB): Scorecards for soil health: developed with and used by farmers - promoting understanding and discussion of soil function
- Jeroen van der Brugge (De Vlinderstichting | Dutch Butterfly Conservation): BIMAG: Farmer Insect Monitoring Agricultural Areas
- Kelly Jowett (Rothamsted Research): Farmer monitoring of beetles: for data collection and adaptive management
- John Redhead (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology): Designing digital tools for farmer-led citizen science
- Dylan Lloyd (Natural Resources Wales): Closing reflections.
More information
We had a series of talks covering examples of farmer-led citizen science in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, with time for discussion about the opportunities and challenges.
The topic was focussed on farmers and farming, not farmland in general, because this could present new opportunities as well as specific challenges.
The intended audience was practitioners interested in working with farmers (government agencies, NGOs, including farming-focused organisations, and so on). Farmers themselves were not the intended audience for this particular meeting, although it was open to anyone who was interested.
What is citizen science in this context? Two characteristics that are important when considering citizen science and farmers is that taking part is voluntary (i.e. not mandated by government) and it provides mutual benefit for the participant (e.g. the farmer gains data on their local environment) and for science/research/decision-making at a broader scale.
Recording
The video recording of the symposium is available on our YouTube channel or you can view it here.