Photo taken by Blue Carbon Lab.
By Emma McKinley, Maria Garcia, Maria Palacios, Cassandra Nichols, Alpa Bhattacharjee, and Peter Macreadie.
Over recent years there has been a growing interest in ‘citizen science,’ which describes projects that involve non-scientists and non-experts in scientific research. Encouraging people to take part in science in this way is often thought to help improve wider connections between society, nature and some of the challenges facing our natural world.
In this project, we used a citizen science project, run by The Blue Carbon Lab, to introduce people to coastal wetland environments, such as saltmarshes and mangroves. Through taking part in either a citizen science day, or a workshop, we talked to people about the benefits of saltmarshes and mangroves, and introduced participants to the different types of research done on these environments. For the citizen science participants, we supported them in collecting data and carrying out research activities, while those who only participated in the workshop were able to ask any questions of the scientists running the sessions. To understand whether taking part in these experiences had any impact on the participants, we asked them to complete a total of three questionnaires. They completed the first before they took part, the second immediately after the citizen science or workshop experience, and the last 6 to 8 weeks after their involvement in the programme. In this way, we were able to determine a baseline for people’s knowledge and understanding of coastal wetlands. Through the second and third questionnaire, we could explore how their knowledge and perceptions may have changed. We were also interested to know if their involvement in the programme influenced their intention to make any behaviour changes.
We found that taking part in both experiences had an influence on knowledge and perceptions, and that even short citizen science programmes can encourage people to take environmental action.
Relational Thinking 