Author: admin

Climate change policy and forest management laws and regulations in Africa are developed by experts who are trained using particular epistemological approaches. A wealth of other approaches, using bottom-up knowledge, are available, but these are rarely considered or used.

A new project Maarifa (Transformative Knowledge) seeks to work with communities living close to nature and address climate, biodiversity and human development challenges in Tanzania. The project will establish collaboration between University and NGO partners in Tanzania and Denmark to study the development and uptake of novel approaches to Citizen Science for producing environmental knowledge, primarily through the use of smartphone enabled apps. Over the next four years, from 2024 to 2028, the project will investigate how digital technologies applied to forest ecosystem governance can decolonize forest management, improve forest governance, empower citizens, and achieve better forest conservation outcomes.

The partners involved in Maarifa comprise an interdisciplinary team combining technology, ecology, the anthropology of policy making, and national and international agreements and laws relating to climate, nature, forests and development. Led by Professor Ida Theilade, University of Copenhagen, the project includes staff and PhD students from the universities in Dodoma and Dar es Salaam who will work together with staff of the Danish Institute for International Studies, NORDECO and UNEP-WCMC. The project is co-funded by DANIDA. Collaboration with national and Indigenous associations in Tanzania will ensure up-take of lessons learned. The project contributes to both sustainable development in Tanzania, and global learning on Citizen Science for climate and nature action.

There is an increasingly different understanding of the status of the environment and what actions that need to be undertaken between landowners and government agencies in the Faroe Islands. A new nature conservation law (Náttúruverndarlógin) provides a framework for improving conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. International experience suggests that systematic involvement of landowners in monitoring coastal resources can effectively promote dialogue between landowners and government agencies and strengthen the management of the coastal resources.

A new project “Community-Based Monitoring and Management of Living Resources in the Faroe Islands” has been funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Working Group for Biodiversity. The project aims to share ‘good practice’ methods for involving resource users in monitoring and managing coastal resources such as seabirds, for instance through co-created citizen science. The project also aims to contribute to give landowners and hunters a ‘voice’ in the implementation of the new law by co-developing a roadmap for testing collaborative management of coastal resources, based on experiences from other parts of the Arctic.

The project has been initiated by the University of the Faroe Islands, staff of Umhvørvisstovan, and Nordic Foundation for Development and Ecology (NORDECO), in close dialogue with Jagtforeningen Lonin on Sandoy. The project is co-supported by the UArctic Thematic Network on Collaborative Resource Management, and the EC through the projects European Citizen Science, FRAMEwork, and MoRe4nature.

View towards the East from the westernmost point of the country (Photo by Finn Danielsen)

A new project ”MoRe4nature – Empowering citizens in collaborative environmental compliance assurance via MOnitoring, REporting and action” has been funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation funding programme with a budget of 7.6M Euro. Degradation of the environment – in terms of pollution of natural resources, biodiversity loss and deforestation – is continuing. In many parts of Europe and globally it is even worsening. A key element in reversing the trend in environmental degradation is a change in environmental compliance assurance efforts. Citizen Science in its various forms presents many opportunities, but barriers to the uptake of Citizen Generated Data and citizen actions in environmental compliance assurance have not been effectively tackled. 𝐌𝐨𝐑𝐞𝟒𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 aims to trigger transformative change in conservation efforts regarding zero pollution, biodiversity protection and deforestation prevention by involving citizens as key actors in collaborative environmental compliance assurance.

Over the next 4 years, we will be engaging 162 existing citizen science initiatives, and 98 authorities and national agencies in 40 cases in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, as well as selected LivingLabs in Europe to help bring about these changes.

Illustration of the MoRe4nature concept.

The consortium comprise 21 partners: IHE Delft Institute for Water Education (lead), CREAF, NILU, NIVA, NIOO-KNAW, University of Copenhagen, ECSA – European Citizen Science Association, Earthwatch Europe, Dreamocracy, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, Vizzuality, RIVM National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, VITO, NECU, Coastwatch, FCID, Tracasa Global, Forests of the world, UNEP-WCMC, Polish Smog Alert, and NORDECO.