The American Museum of Natural History, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the National Audubon Society are partnering to organize a workshop for scientists, educators, and community members involved in conservation-oriented Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) projects. PPSR projects have the potential to advance scientific discovery by engaging volunteers in large-scale data collection and analysis, enabling volunteers to conduct scientific inquiry, and promoting stakeholder involvement in policymaking. Despite PPSR's potential, educators need to understand what mechanisms best nurture the development of skills, attitudes, and behaviors of citizen scientist volunteers. Workshop participants will share experiences, lessons learned, protocols and tools, and develop an agenda for answering still unanswered questions about advancing informal science education goals via PPSR activities. Topics for workshop sessions include models of PPSR projects; PPSR data for conservation biology; conservation psychology; integrating PPSR into conservation planning; and emerging technologies for public participation in PPSR projects.
The goals of the project are to (1) enhance the practice of biodiversity science, (2) increase the potential for biodiversity conservation projects to meet educational goals, (3) allow scientists to further engage in and contribute to answering large-scale research questions, and (4) prepare the groundwork for establishing more public participation projects as part of museum public programs. The project's objectives are to identify conditions under which PPSR projects can be most useful for biodiversity conservation, explore the impact of PPSR in encouraging volunteers to become interested in and stewards of nature, identify strategies and mechanisms for expanding the reach of PPSR to new audiences, and create a network for PPSR organizers.
The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society convened a workshop for scientists, educators, and community members involved in conservation-oriented public participation in scientific research (PPSR) projects to share experiences, lessons learned, protocols and tools, and to collaboratively advance informal education goals that lead to conservation outcomes through PPSR. The conference advisory board included representatives from 9 US institutions including 6 universities, 1 federal agency, and 2 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as from 3 NGOs from outside the US. We made a concerted effort to recruit workshop participants who were from or work with groups under-represented in science careers, and focused on connecting with people of color and indigenous, native, and other local communities who are dependent upon natural resources for their livelihoods. Leading up to the workshop, we conducted a survey and invited respondents to contribute perspectives to the initiative through an online forum. More than 200 people responded, describing PPSR initiatives in which they are involved, the major opportunities and challenges they encountered, and information and tools that would have the most impact on their work in PPSR. There were 60 participants in the workshop, including the PIs, project team, and advisors. Fifty-four were U.S. participants; two were from Canada, two from Colombia, one from the U.K., and one from Denmark. During the two-day workshop, participants engaged in: 1. Sharing stories and examining how PPSR links to biodiversity conservation and to larger issues such environmental policy, land use, sociology and socio-economics. 2. Analyzing case studies to identify key strategies for developing conservation-related PPSR initiatives. We identified several areas for further focus and exploration, including increasing diversity and inclusiveness, and engaging a broad set of stakeholders and knowledge systems from project inception through execution and application of findings. 3. Exploring ideas for new PPSR projects and new components or tools to enhance existing ones. 4. Generating ideas for promoting communication, networking, and partnerships among individuals and organizations working in PPSR and conservation. The workshop and associated products significantly contribute to conservation science and practice by enabling scientists and educators to improve the outcomes of PPSR projects and to recognize the multiple goals they can address in science, education, and conservation, and the methods, tools, and technologies they can use to achieve them. The web platform citizenscience.org is the go-to resource for information and resources for PPSR practice. Discussions at the workshop have also informed the reconfiguring of the Toolkit, which will be made available on citizenscience.org in 2015. The Audubon Society’s "Tools of Engagement" (TOE) is a planning guide about how to integrate people into conservation planning, and ensure that projects have meaningful and scalable outcomes. Case studies developed using projects presented at the AMNH workshop will be linked to the TOE module on Citizen Science. The module and it's integration into training for the Audubon Center network has helped to shape programming that achieves more intentional and direct conservation outcomes. The goal is that the Audubon centers function as conservation hubs for their communities rather than as simply nature education centers. The discussions and connections made during the AMNH PPSR workshop were a springboard for several other events organized by workshop organizers or collaborators. Results from the workshop were presented at 5 professional society meetings. At least 2 workshops on PPSR were organized, 3 symposia and 1 panel on the topic at international conferences, and a webinar for the conservation leadership program Together Green was developed. Project PIs with co-organizers and workshop participants launched the first PPSR Conference in August 2012, the first large-scale, open conference on the topic aimed at integrating insights from many diverse disciplines and research contexts. Conversations regarding the formation of a professional association for PPSR began at the AMNH PPSR workshop and the Citizen Science Association was officially launched in February 2014. This professional association is planning their inaugural conference in 2015, with a CBC staff member delivering the keynote address. The CSA will also have a peer-reviewed journal. CBC staff brought case studies and principles from the PPSR workshop to incipient citizen science projects to community-based groups. These partnerships have resulted in further international training and collaboration such as the multiple workshops developed by CBC staff and collaborators on capacity development for indigenous peoples and local communities presented at the once-a-decade World Parks Congress, held in Australia in 2014. While the PPSR workshop focused on projects with conservation questions, action and outcomes, PPSR encompasses scientific research in many disciplines, including ecology, public health, social sciences, and economics, among others. The questions and issues we framed in the workshop that have been further developed in subsequent work will have broad application in this rapidly developing field, regardless of discipline.
