The more4nature project endeavours to catalyse transformative change in conservation efforts related to zero pollution, biodiversity protection, and deforestation prevention by actively involving citizens and communities as pivotal stakeholders in collaborative Environmental Compliance Assurance (ECA) initiatives. A pivotal aspect in reversing the trajectory of environmental degradation involves redefining interventions in ECA. Citizen science initiatives offer innovative avenues for joint data and knowledge generation, as well as for empowering citizens in sustainable natural resource management. However, barriers to the adoption of citizen generated data and citizen involvement in ECA remain difficult to overcome. more4nature adopts a socio-technical approach to confront these challenges and enhance the role of citizens and communities in ECA by:
- Enhancing the capacity of existing citizen science initiatives to provide relevant and reliable data and foster understanding and relevance/importance of ECA.
- Facilitating and supporting collaboration and partnerships between citizen science initiatives and authorities to address data gaps and shape policy monitoring frameworks.
- Developing and testing tools to validate data from citizen science initiatives, thereby contributing to the adoption and usage of such data sources by environmental governance authorities.
- Making citizen generated data accessible as a component of the Green Deal Data Space.
- Leveraging the urgency for immediate action among citizens and communities by fostering synergies between citizen science initiatives and other partnerships, including other initiatives such as Fab Labs, which share values of sustainability transitions and can aid in co-designing actions as part of green and digital transformations.
There are 6 Work Packages (WPs) in the more4nature project:
- WP1 Social dimensions of empowering citizens and citizen science initiatives in collaborative ECA
- WP2 Technical dimensions: Geospatial modelling with FAIR citizen generated data. From validated citizen generated data to spatialized policy indicators
- WP3 Case studies on collaborative ECA for zero pollution, biodiversity protection and deforestation prevention
- WP4 Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation
- WP5 Project Management
- WP6 Ethics requirements
Further details can be found in the more4nature website: more4nature.eu