Citizen Science, Plant Species, and Communities’ Diversity and Conservation on a Mediterranean Biosphere Reserve

Maria Panitsa,Nikolia Iliopoulou,Emmanouil Petrakis

doi:10.3390/su13179925

Maria Panitsa, Nikolia Iliopoulou + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179925

Copy DOI

Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Sep 3, 2021
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Patras

Abstract

Citizen science can serve as a tool to address environmental and conservation issues. Ιn the framework of Erasmus+ project CS4ESD, this study focuses on promoting the importance of plants and plant species and communities’ diversity by using available web-based information because of Covid-19 limitations and concerning the case study of Olympus mountain Biosphere Reserve (Greece). A questionnaire was designed to collect the necessary information, aiming to investigate pupils’ and students’ willing to distinguish and learn more about plant species and communities and evaluate information found on the web. Pupils, students, and experts participated in this study. The results are indicative of young citizens’ ability to evaluate environmental issues. They often underestimate plant species richness, endemism, plant communities, the importance of plants, and ecosystem services. They also use environmental or plant-based websites and online available data in a significantly different way than experts. The age of the young citizens is a factor that may affect the quality of data. The essential issue of recognizing the importance of plants and plant communities and of assisting for their conservation is highlighted. Education for sustainable development is one of the most important tools that facilitates environmental knowledge and enhances awareness.

Highlights

Citizen science is implemented in many topics, raising awareness and enabling learning, and it can be a tool for environmental and conservation issues [1,2,3,4,5] by providing opportunities to generate new knowledge, enabling learning, facilitating environmental knowledge, enhancing awareness, building capacities, strengthening communities, and enabling civic participation [3,6,7]
We focus on promoting the importance of plants and plant species diversity to young citizens, pupils, and students, by using web-based information because of Covid19 limitations, concerning the Olympus mountain Biosphere Reserve
The aim of the study was to investigate their ability to use web-based information on plants and plant communities, their perception of their importance and of the ecosystem services they offer through the case study of Olympus Biosphere Reserve, and to propose how young citizens could contribute more to the targets of SDG 15 and biodiversity conservation

Summary

Introduction

Citizen science is implemented in many topics, raising awareness and enabling learning, and it can be a tool for environmental and conservation issues [1,2,3,4,5] by providing opportunities to generate new knowledge, enabling learning, facilitating environmental knowledge, enhancing awareness, building capacities, strengthening communities, and enabling civic participation [3,6,7]. Conservation-based citizen science includes individuals’ awareness for sustainability [1]. Many of the most important current topics, including global warming, sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems, desertification, land degradation, biodiversity loss, food security, and need for new pharmaceuticals, include plants, plant diversity, and plant communities. Citizen science has the potential to contribute to monitoring the progress of the United

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion