Citizen Scientists – we need you in the community
Regardless of your identity and background, or your knowledge on science, if you enthuse in ecology, have curiosity and are observant toward nature, no matter whether you are students, nature lovers, parents, or children...you can all become scientists! We hope there will be more people who become citizen scientists, contribute to Hong Kong’s ecology and biodiversity research hand in hand! Let us share the fruitful results from the past citizen scientists who join our programme and training!
“ECF Discovering South Lantau Invertebrates – Search in Lantau”
From 2020 to 2021, the programme recruited more than 150 citizens who are interested in community ecology to become citizen scientists and participate in the ‘Community-based Survey on Terrestrial Invertebrates—Search in Lantau’. They visited eight communities on the Lantau and recorded insects and invertebrates, then uploaded the records to the online biodiversity record platform, iNaturalist, so as to establish and enhance the insect and invertebrate database of the Lantau community with the collective efforts.
The group of citizen scientists collected nearly 12,000 observation records just in three months, which was almost the total number of Lantau Island records on iNaturalist in the past twelve years! Moreover, about 40% of them reached the research level, and more than 700 species were recorded. Among the recorded species, 164 (23.1%) were the first recorded species in the Lantau area on iNaturalist, and 17 species were the first recorded species in Hong Kong on iNaturalist. In light of this, the survey provided crucial and fundamental data for the conservation of the Lantau Island, insects, and invertebrates. Nevertheless, participants' responses were very positive. In addition to increasing their knowledge of insects, they also learned the necessity to take care of our environment.
To achieve such impressive survey results and educational outcomes, planning and ingenuity behind the event are indispensable. The survey was conducted in the form of a competition with the time-limited missions, and exquisite stickers theming local insects and terrestrial arthropods were designed as rewards for the special tasks, so to encourage active participation. In order to promote the exceptional outcomes of the survey, we launched a series of social platform posts, ranging from the insect photos recorded by the participants during the survey to sharing interesting insect knowledge with the public. After the survey had been completed, an online survey result sharing was held, pursuing to raise people’s awareness on the rich biodiversity of the Lantau community.
This citizen science survey depended greatly on the hard work and dedication of every citizen scientist. Without their contribution, we could hardly gain such a deep insight into the biodiversity of the Lantau community. More importantly, we can all become citizen scientists to explore and gratify Hong Kong’s ecology, as long as we are attentive to the lives intercepting our everyday life.
