Seven Hundred Projects in iNaturalist Spain: Performance and Lessons Learned

Abstract

Citizen science projects seem to have a high potential to provide systematized, high-quality biodiversity observations for science and other purposes. iNaturalist offers users purposeful participation by creating projects that allow observations to be grouped with a taxonomic and geographic focus, as well as on a given time scale. Between 2014 and December 2021, 720 iNaturalist projects have been created for Spain, most of them after the establishment of Natusfera—the Spanish branch of the iNaturalist global Community—in 2020. In this paper, we analyze how iNaturalist projects are created; how they perform in terms of engagement, data contribution, and impact; and assess the degree and possible causes of their success. A database with project descriptors and indicators was created for this purpose. We discovered that a high percentage of the projects (more than 25%) perform far short of expectations, and that bioblitzes are in general very successful in terms of creation, dissemination, and participation. Finally, we present some recommendations aiming to make these projects more effective.