IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v4y2015i4p1200-1212d60274.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Role of Citizen Science in Landscape and Seascape Approaches to Integrating Conservation and Development

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey Sayer

    (Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, P.O. Box 6811, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia)

  • Chris Margules

    (Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, P.O. Box 6811, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia
    Research Centre for Climate Change, University of Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok, West Java 16424, Indonesia)

  • Iris Bohnet

    (Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, P.O. Box 6811, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia)

  • Agni Boedhihartono

    (Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, P.O. Box 6811, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia)

  • Ray Pierce

    (Kuranda Envirocare, Kuranda, QLD 4881, Australia)

  • Allan Dale

    (The Cairns Institute, James Cook University, P.O. Box 6811, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia)

  • Kate Andrews

    (The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Linnaeus Way, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia)

Abstract

Initiatives to manage landscapes for both biodiversity protection and sustainable development commonly employ participatory methods to exploit the knowledge of citizens. We review five examples of citizen groups engaging with landscape scale conservation initiatives to contribute their knowledge, collect data for monitoring programs, study systems to detect patterns, and test hypotheses on aspects of landscape dynamics. Three are from landscape interventions that deliberately target biodiversity conservation and aim to have sustainable development as a collateral outcome. The other two are driven primarily by concerns for agricultural sustainability with biodiversity conservation as a collateral outcome. All five include programs in which, management agencies support data collection by citizen groups to monitor landscape changes. Situations where citizen groups self-organise to collect data and interpret data to aid in landscape scale decision making are less common and are restricted to landscapes where the inhabitants have a high level of scientific literacy. Given the complexity of landscape processes and the multiple decision makers who influence landscape outcomes we argue that citizen science broadly defined should be an essential element of landscape scale initiatives. Conservation managers should create space for citizen engagement in science and should empower citizen groups to experiment, learn, and adapt their decision-making to improve landscape scale outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey Sayer & Chris Margules & Iris Bohnet & Agni Boedhihartono & Ray Pierce & Allan Dale & Kate Andrews, 2015. "The Role of Citizen Science in Landscape and Seascape Approaches to Integrating Conservation and Development," Land, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:4:y:2015:i:4:p:1200-1212:d:60274
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/4/4/1200/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/4/4/1200/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ezzine de Blas, Driss & Ruiz Pérez, Manuel & Sayer, Jeffrey A. & Lescuyer, Guillaume & Nasi, Robert & Karsenty, Alain, 2009. "External Influences on and Conditions for Community Logging Management in Cameroon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 445-456, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rebecca A. Riggs & James D. Langston & Chris Margules & Agni Klintuni Boedhihartono & Han She Lim & Dwi Amalia Sari & Yazid Sururi & Jeffrey Sayer, 2018. "Governance Challenges in an Eastern Indonesian Forest Landscape," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, January.
    2. Jeffrey Sayer & Chris Margules & Agni Klintuni Boedhihartono, 2017. "Will Biodiversity Be Conserved in Locally-Managed Forests?," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-9, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berka, Anna L. & Harnmeijer, Jelte & Roberts, Deborah & Phimister, Euan & Msika, Joshua, 2017. "A comparative analysis of the costs of onshore wind energy: Is there a case for community-specific policy support?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 394-403.
    2. Butler, Megan & Current, Dean, 2021. "Relationship between community capitals and governance: The perspective of local actors in the Maya Biosphere Reserve," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    3. Carias Vega, Dora & Keenan, Rodney J., 2016. "Transaction costs and the organization of CFEs: Experiences from ejidos in Quintana Roo, Mexico," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-8.
    4. Vega, Dora Carias & Keenan, Rodney J., 2014. "Transaction cost theory of the firm and community forestry enterprises," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1-7.
    5. Humphries, Shoana & Holmes, Thomas P. & Kainer, Karen & Koury, Carlos Gabriel Gonçalves & Cruz, Edson & de Miranda Rocha, Rosana, 2012. "Are community-based forest enterprises in the tropics financially viable? Case studies from the Brazilian Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 62-73.
    6. Mohammed, Abrar J & Inoue, Makoto & Shivakoti, Ganesh, 2017. "Moving forward in collaborative forest management: Role of external actors for sustainable Forest socio-ecological systems," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 13-19.
    7. Butler, Megan, 2021. "Analyzing community forest enterprises in the Maya Biosphere Reserve using a modified capitals framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:4:y:2015:i:4:p:1200-1212:d:60274. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.