Citizen Science’s Role in Indian Wildlife Conservation

Are you familiar with citizen science, which involves everyday people volunteering to collectively gather large amounts of observational data? Join this educational webinar to learn about the two main citizen science platforms used in India: one for plants and the other for birds. Thousands of individuals, schools and organizations from across the world’s second-most populated country are contributing their time to help amass a wealth of information about their natural environment. These civic data-collection programs help increase researchers’ understanding of biodiversity and animal behavior, as well as longer-term trends such as evolutionary ecology and climate change. Expedition Leader Payal Mehta and Suhel Quader, a scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation, will describe the significant contributions that amateur observers are making to scientific research via these crowd-sourcing tools. Payal and Suhel will share some interesting revelations about India’s birds, plants and ecosystems that have been obtained through citizen science. You’ll also hear about the foundation’s ongoing work to facilitate these community-driven science initiatives that are expanding our understanding of the wild world.


Originally presented August 3, 2021

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