Participatory Environmental Monitoring Research Articles

Exploring local perceptions and drivers of engagement in biodiversity monitoring among participants in payments for ecosystem services schemes in southeastern Mexico.

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are widely applied incentive-based instruments with diverse objectives that increasingly include biodiversity conservation. Yet, there is a gap in understanding of how to best assess and monitor programs' biodiversity outcomes. We examined perceptions and drivers of engagement related to biodiversity monitoring through surveys among current PES participants in 7 communities in Mexico's Selva Lacandona. We conducted workshops among survey participants that included training and field deployment of tools used to monitor biodiversity and land cover, including visual transects, camera traps, acoustic recorders, and forest cover satellite images. We conducted pre- and postworkshop surveys in each community to evaluate changes in respondents' perceptions following exposure to biodiversity monitoring training and related field activities. We also reviewed existing research on participatory environmental management and monitoring approaches. One quarter of current PES participants in the study area participated in our surveys and workshops. The majority stated interest in engaging in diverse activities related to the procedural aspects of biodiversity monitoring (e.g., planning, field data collection, results dissemination) and acknowledged multiple benefits of introducing biodiversity monitoring into PES (e.g., knowledge and capacity building, improved natural resource management, and greater support for conservation). Household economic reliance on PES was positively associated with willingness to engage in monitoring. Technical expertise, time, and monetary constraints were deterrents. Respondents were most interested in monitoring mammals, birds, and plants and using visual transects, camera traps, and forest cover satellite images. Exposure to monitoring enhanced subsequent interest in monitoring by providing respondents with new insights from their communities related to deforestation and species' abundance and diversity. Respondents identified key strengths and weaknesses of applying different monitoring tools, which suggests that deploying multiple tools simultaneously can increase local engagement and produce complementary findings and data. Overall, our findings support the relevance and usefulness of incorporating participatory biodiversity monitoring into PES.

The ‘obligatory passage point’ in knowledge co-production: Italy’s participatory environmental monitoring platform

ABSTRACT The process of developing of a participatory environmental monitoring network in Italy, unfolded between 2013 and 2020, is analysed in order to explore the dynamics of knowledge co-production involving collaboration between scientists and non-experts, in the present case constituted by a community of weather amateurs and practitioners. Based on a qualitative approach and 15 in-depth interviews with different stakeholders involved in the early development of the pilot network, the analysis focuses on the dynamics of collaboration between the actors involved that led to the creation of the Italian participatory environmental monitoring platform. For the analysis, we adopt the theoretical model of ‘translation' proposed by Michel Callon (1984), which focuses on the dynamics of the emergence of a network of collaboration between scientists and other heterogeneous actors. In particular, we focus on the notion of ‘obligatory passage point’ (OPP) along the translation process. Focusing on the process of translation and the dynamics that characterise the convergence towards a common OPP in the processes of network constitution and knowledge production highlights some crucial dynamics that support the unfolding of effective forms of participatory co-production, including: the understanding of how the roles and identities of different actors are recognised, transformed, productively aligned and consolidated; the performative power of participatory processes that are able to redefine and transform the pre-existing identities and roles of actors; and the outcome of the epistemic inclusion of practices and knowledge of less powerful actors within institutional, political and scientific frameworks.

Mulheres camponesas e as inequidades de gênero na indústria de mineração

Abstract The mining industry in Peru - as well as in many resource-rich countries of the global South - is of great economic and social importance, particularly in remote regions where mineral deposits are often located. The academic literature has so far neglected analysing how women in these regions are affected by the industry. As such, it is relevant to study the gendered conflict surrounding the activity and invisibility of women in the mining industry, as well as their proposals, demands, and needs, with a focus on environmental and social concerns. This study analysed the experiences of peasant women from Peruvian Andes communities in environmental governance processes in mining contexts as they sought to exercise their citizenship within the mining industry and public spaces. Using a qualitative approach involving a focus group and panel discussions, the experiences and perceptions of the women who are part of the participatory environmental monitoring and surveillance committees (PEMSC) were considered. This paper highlights gendered inequalities concerning the benefits of mining, the process of change in the social dynamics of mining communities, and political claims for a better social arrangement, with social, political, economic, and ecological considerations from the women’s point of view.

Participatory environmental health research: A tool to explore the socio-exposome in a major european industrial zone

ObjectivesWe show that participatory research approaches can be a useful tool across disciplines and data collection methods to explore the socio-exposome near one of the largest industrial harbors in Europe. We analyzed resident involvement in each project and their capacity to affect structural changes. MethodsLongitudinal participatory environmental monitoring studies on lichens, petunias, aquatic systems and groundwater were conducted under the program VOCE (Volunteers for the Citizens' Observation of the Environment), which mobilized nearly 100 volunteers to collect and report data. A community-based participatory health survey, Fos EPSEAL was also carried out during the same period. We describe citizens' involvement in each study following Davis and Ramirez-Andreotta's (2021) ‘best practice’ grid. We also use residents' insights to refine understanding of the socio-exposome. ResultsThe region is significantly impacted by industrial pollution and fenceline communities are disproportionately exposed. The community-based participatory health survey documented negative health outcomes among the residents, including a higher prevalence of chronic symptoms and diabetes (e.g., 11.9%) in the Fos-Berre Lagoon region than in other communities. This methodology shows the benefits of the co-production of knowledge in environmental health: not only does it enable epistemological transformations favorable to the vulnerable population, but it also triggered public action (i.e., media and public authorities’ attention leading to official expertise reports, filing of collective complaints before the courts). ConclusionThis body of multiple participatory research studies over time is a useful approach to better understand the socio-exposome and health issues in an industrial zone.

A Volunteered Geographic Information-Based Environmental Decision Support System for Waste Management and Decision Making

The need for in-depth and fast observation of waste pollutions, increase in public concerns on environmental pollution and the effect of polluted environment on the physical and mental health of people have led to participatory environmental monitoring and protection. Citizens can act as volunteer, interactive, group, logical, smart, responsible, mobile, and dispersed observers/sensors to constantly monitor their surroundings and provide real-time data of waste pollutions that are not easily remotely sensed. The concept of volunteered geographic information (VGI) can be adopted as an effective phenomenon for participatory collection of environmental pollution data. However, the research problem is how to effectively use these citizen-contributed or volunteered information for waste management analyses and decision-making processes. Consequently, the objective of the present study is to develop a VGI-based environmental decision support tool that facilitates direct involvement of the public in generating waste pollution data and provides appropriate GIS-MCDA (multicriteria decision analysis) analytical tools for waste management and decision making using the citizen-contributed data. A web-based prototype of the decision support system was developed to demonstrate the practical feasibility, applicability and some functionalities of the system for pollution-related decision analyses.

Comparing Structured and Unstructured Facilitation Approaches in Consultation Workshops: A Field Experiment

Facilitators must make important decisions when preparing for consultation workshops. One critical choice pertains to how much structure should be incorporated in a workshop and imposed on group discussions. Highly structured consultations may ensure efficiency and help produce specific outputs. However, too much structure may limit group discussion, creativity, or be ill received by participants. To examine the impacts of structure in a workshop consultation, we conducted a field experiment that compares structured and unstructured facilitation approaches in a workshop on participatory environmental monitoring. We randomized participants (n = 34) into two parallel sessions where they completed the same tasks of idea generation and prioritization but with contrasting facilitation approaches. We collected pre and post surveys to compare satisfaction between groups across a range of variables. We find that structured facilitation with small group discussions provide a modest yet consistent improvement over the unstructured facilitation approach. We also find that women and men had very different perceptions about the level of women’s participation in the session. Experimental research designs are feasible for learning about facilitation methods and testing best practices in public participation and consultations.

Between hope and boredom: Attending to long-term related emotions in participatory environmental monitoring programmes

In an era characterized by fast and drastic global changes, the scientific community highly values the long-term dimension of environmental monitoring programmes. This article focuses on the affective dimension of the management of these programmes when specifically involving volunteers during their working time. Drawing on an empirical study of two such programmes in France, this article studies the long-term related emotions of the programme managers and participants, as identified and expressed by the managers themselves, and analyses the emotional work they perform. Two long-term related emotions appear to be particularly important in their work: hope and boredom. Both can have a positive or negative effect, depending on the emotional work involved. Managers attend to them by making data collection protocols less wearisome, by “finding the short term in the long term”, and by creating “hot moments”. More generally, we show that managing environmental monitoring programmes over an indefinite duration is affectively demanding, especially in a professional setting where managers and participants expect to produce practical outcomes in the short term. There are no ready-made recipes and managers must adapt their emotional work to each programme's specificities. The capacity to identify and attend to emotions is therefore a crucial quality of the managers of these programmes.

Building Resilience to Chronic Landslide Hazard Through Citizen Science

Landslides disrupt livelihoods, cause loss of human lives and damages to property and infrastructure. In the case of Nepal, the destructive impact of landslides has been steadily increasing as a result of the rising occupation of marginal land and extreme weather events caused by climate change. In particular, the impacts of seasonal, shallow landslides have been underestimated due to underreporting, and lack appropriate policy response. Within this paper, we argue that citizen science – the practice of incorporating the general public in the process of knowledge co-production – may help address this issue by increasing the knowledge base of stakeholders at different levels. We present the preliminary results from an interdisciplinary scoping study of two landslide sites in Western Nepal, in Bajhang and Bajura, where the Landslide-EVO research project, including a citizen science component, is currently being implemented. The aim of the project is to innovate participatory environmental monitoring and to generate evidence to support resilience. Our exploratory qualitative investigation outlines the strategies currently employed by the local communities that continue living in the landslide affected areas. These include demographic shifts and patterns, land use changes and occupational diversification. We argue that these existing local adaptation and mitigation practices compound a wealth of experiential knowledge. Based on evidence from literature, as well as our first-hand experience of starting citizen science activities in the both landslide sites, we argue that citizen science has the potential to build on local knowledge base and strengthen the adaptive capacities of different level stakeholders. Our theoretical contribution is the proposed typology of citizen-science interventions. We distinguish between community science, participatory environmental monitoring and virtual citizen science, providing examples of how they can benefit stakeholders at different levels and/or different types of research. Finally, we examine the ways in which different types of citizen science could be applied in our case study sites, specifying the conditions under which they can attain maximum usefulness.

Civilian science: the potential of participatory environmental monitoring in areas affected by armed conflicts

Legal and policy initiatives to address the environmental dimensions of armed conflicts and their impact on people, ecosystems and sustainable development are highly dependent on the availability of environmental data from conflict-affected areas. Socio-political and security conditions in these areas often impede data collection, while traditional models of post-conflict environmental assessments are limited in scope. In response, an increasing range of actors is utilising remote sensing and open source data collection to identify and estimate health and ecological risks during and after conflicts. This paper considers the role of participatory citizen science methodologies in complementing both remote monitoring and post-conflict assessments. It examines existing models and mechanisms for environmental data collection and utilisation in conflict contexts, and the extent to which the core values and principles of citizen science are transferable. We find that ‘civilian science’ is feasible and could be well-suited to conflict conditions. In addition to addressing gaps in data collection, it may also empower communities affected by environmental degradation, enhance their environmental human rights, supplement the often limited monitoring capacity of governmental agencies and facilitate cooperation and peacebuilding. The paper concludes by proposing methodological approaches for three common forms of environmental degradation associated with armed conflicts.

Report-back for geo-referenced environmental data: A case study on personal monitoring of temperature in outdoor workers.

Few studies have evaluated the benefits of reporting back participatory environmental monitoring results, particularly regarding participant motivation toward behavioural modification concerning workplace heat exposure. This study evaluated the individual data report-back for geo-located environmental temperature and time activity patterns in grounds maintenance crews in three geographic regions across the South-eastern United States. Surveys collected information on worker interpretation of their results and intended action(s) to reduce heat exposure. Worker response was highly positive, especially among more experienced workers who expressed a greater willingness to modify personal behaviour to reduce heat stress. Individual-level report-back of environmental data is a powerful tool for individuals to understand and act on their personal exposure to heat.

Participatory Air Monitoring in the Midst of Uncertainty: Residents’ Experiences with the Speck Sensor

How do participants engage in at-home air monitoring in the midst of uncertain exposures to airborne emissions associated with unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) activities? We investigate residents’ experiences with the “Speck” particulate matter sensor with an emerging environmental health resource center called the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project (EHP).  In response to the gaps in knowledge about the health impacts of UNGD and the growth citizen science tools, participatory environmental monitoring (PEM) projects have taken off in shale gas communities. Using interview and survey data from residents, advocates, and activists we show that residents use the Speck as: 1) “environmental health thermometers” to make real time decisions based on readings; 2) real-time tools of exposure-validation to immediately validate or invalidate suspicions of exposure; 3) “epistemic objects” or tools manipulated in exploratory ways to understand their efficacy in monitoring UNGD; and 4) passively by those who chose to rarely interact with the monitors and rather waited for overall analysis of results.  While PEM’s have been critiqued for potentially passing the burden of monitoring onto communities, our research shows PEM, when connected with research and public health organizations like EHP, can both empower individuals by increasing their perceived and actual agency and build collective knowledge by producing novel scientific findings. The modes of participation identified here each imply individual and community-level outcomes. When connected with an organization like EHP, Speck monitoring enabled participating individual the latitude to develop their own research and make immediate use of the data, while also creating data useful for aggregated scientific analyses that provoke new questions about the health risks associated with UNGD.

The Role of Participatory Environmental Monitoring Committees in Mining Regions in Peru

Mining companies and governments at both the local and national levels recognize that Participatory Environmental Monitoring and Surveillance Committees (PEMSC) are necessary mechanisms for meaningful engagement at the community level. In many cases, PEMSCs are established as volunteer initiatives by mining companies or by the mining communities themselves. In Peru however, they can also be recommended by the government as way to address social conflict. Most PEMSCs are launched while a mine is in operation and have the objective of monitoring both water quality and quantity. Many established committees are currently evolving and adopting a more comprehensive approach, as well as expanding their initial scope from a river or micro-basin focus and watchdog agenda, to a broader regional integrated resources management view. This paper examines the origins of Participatory Environmental Monitoring and Surveillance Committees in Peru. It also discusses the typology of these committees, and the scope of their work. Furthermore, it looks at the challenges faced by these committees, as well as existing opportunities for mining companies, governments, and civil society. Finally, this study presents a governance model that could contribute to the long-term existence of these committees. This discussion is further informed by the results of a national workshop that took place in October 2016 in Peru, in which over 200 representatives from 22 monitoring committees, government and mining companies participated.

The role of digital data entry in participatory environmental monitoring.

Many argue that monitoring conducted exclusively by scientists is insufficient to address ongoing environmental challenges. One solution entails the use of mobile digital devices in participatory monitoring (PM) programs. But how digital data entry affects programs with varying levels of stakeholder participation, from nonscientists collecting field data to nonscientists administering every step of a monitoring program, remains unclear. We reviewed the successes, in terms of management interventions and sustainability, of 107 monitoring programs described in the literature (hereafter programs) and compared these with case studies from our PM experiences in Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Greenland, and Vietnam (hereafter cases). Our literature review showed that participatory programs were less likely to use digital devices, and 2 of our 3 more participatory cases were also slow to adopt digital data entry. Programs that were participatory and used digital devices were more likely to report management actions, which was consistent with cases in Ethiopia, Greenland, and Australia. Programs engaging volunteers were more frequently reported as ongoing, but those involving digital data entry were less often sustained when data collectors were volunteers. For the Vietnamese and Canadian cases, sustainability was undermined by a mismatch in stakeholder objectives. In the Ghanaian case, complex field protocols diminished monitoring sustainability. Innovative technologies attract interest, but the foundation of effective participatory adaptive monitoring depends more on collaboratively defined questions, objectives, conceptual models, and monitoring approaches. When this foundation is built through effective partnerships, digital data entry can enable the collection of more data of higher quality. Without this foundation, or when implemented ineffectively or unnecessarily, digital data entry can be an additional expense that distracts from core monitoring objectives and undermines project sustainability. The appropriate role of digital data entry in PM likely depends more on the context in which it is used and less on the technology itself.

LibTiP: a lightweight and robust scheme for data trustworthiness and privacy protection in participatory sensing

Participatory sensing has been envisioned as a promising paradigm for rapidly sharing of environmental information by mobile smart phones that are always equipped with sensors. It invokes a large amount of mobile applications, e.g., participatory environmental monitoring, transportation and traffic management, and personal entertainments. As participators are usually volunteers, participatory sensing thus poses several fundamental security problems such as data trustworthiness, participator reputation evaluation, participator privacy protection and functional robustness against inner attacks or malicious participators. Although some schemes have already been proposed in recent years, none of them is able to solve the above problems in one solution, especially, in a lightweight manner. In this paper, we make the first attempt in this regard and propose a scheme called LibTip. We pinpoint and model several new attacks in participatory sensing that are launched from inner attackers such as bad-mouth attack and key leakage attack. The definitions for the security of the scheme are formally stated. The security and performance are thoroughly analysed or proved, which justifies the applicability of LibTip.

Monitoring the Impacts of Extraction: Science and Participation in the Governance of Mining in Peru

In Peru the recent growth of the mining economy has generated conflicts that often revolve around the environmental impacts of extraction. This paper examines a regulatory mechanism that has emerged as a response to these conflicts: participatory environmental monitoring. Focusing on a monitoring committee in the region of Ancash, I assess the committee's efforts to generate shared understandings about mining's environmental impacts, while also analyzing the consequences of the committee's work for the claims-making efforts of affected populations. I find that, while the work of the committee has not led to a cohesive environmental knowledge community, it has shaped the dynamics of mining-related struggle. Through its privileging of an expert framework for knowing and judging water quality, the committee has helped to demarcate the boundaries of credible environmental knowledge in ways that tend to constrain the capacity of area residents to hold the mining firm accountable for observed impacts on downstream water resources. My analysis points to the ongoing need to examine the uneven social effects that may flow from the privileging of particular knowledge systems and administrative rationalities within resource governance frameworks.

Increasing Conservation Management Action by Involving Local People in Natural Resource Monitoring

There is a need for a better understanding of the status of the environment. At the same time, concerns have been raised regarding alienation of the local populace from environmental decisions. One proposed solution is participatory environmental monitoring. When evaluating the usefulness of environmental monitoring, the focus may be on accuracy, as is usually done by scientists, or on efficiency in terms of conservation impact. To test whether investment in participatory biodiversity monitoring makes economic sense for obtaining data for management decisions, we compared the cost efficiency of participatory and conventional biodiversity monitoring methods in Philippine parks. We found that, from a government perspective, investment in monitoring that combines scientific with participatory methods is strikingly more effective than a similar level of investment in conventional scientific methods alone in generating conservation management interventions. Moreover, the local populace seemed to benefit from more secure de facto user rights over land and other resources. Participatory biodiversity monitoring not only represents a cost-effective alternative when conventional monitoring is impossible, but it is also an unexpectedly powerful complementary approach, capable of generating a much higher level of conservation management intervention, where conventional monitoring already takes place.

Toward Adaptive Community Forest Management: Integrating Local Forest Knowledge with Scientific Forestry

This case study of indigenous communities in highland Michoacán, Mexico, examines data on forest change, woodcutting practices, social history, and a recent forest inventory and management plan prepared by a professional forester. It assesses the social and environmental fit of both local knowledge and scientific forestry and considers their abilities to contribute to sustainable forest management. Both bodies of knowledge are limited in their ability to inform the social practice of environmental management. The local forest knowledge system is particularly hampered by a limited ability to monitor the forest’s response to woodcutting, while scientific forestry lacks the institutional flexibility to ensure the just and effective implementation of restrictions and prescriptions. This article recommends cross-learning between scientific resource managers and woodcutters, participatory environmental monitoring to assess the results of different cutting techniques, and explicit management experiments to facilitate institutional learning at the community level. This kind of adaptive management approach permits the flexible integration of local knowledge, scientific forestry, and appropriate institutional parameters to modulate human needs and goals with the discordant harmonies of inhabited and heavily used forests in a constant state of flux under processes of succession, disturbance, and spatial variation. Several barriers to this kind of institutional innovation exist, but outside intervention has the potential to change the dynamics of institutional evolution.