Environmental research is facing extreme threats of funding cuts day by day, while the world requires more effective role to address climate crisis. The world leaders like US president Donald trump have already decided to lessen funding over climate change mitigations, which is severely impeding the development of breakthrough solutions.
In the light of this backdrop, the mobile apps like iNaruralist, an app modeled to capture wildlife sightings for scientific research, provide us an optimistic scenario. These apps are filling vital knowledge gaps by collecting millions of data points on species, migration, and habitat change. These data are now influencing academic studies and government decisions on development and conservation.
Data shows tens of thousands of volunteers around the world used apps like naturalist to record millions of wildlife sightings. These citizen science apps are serving very efficiently to gather critical wildlife data to be used in research. Over 3.3 million observations were recorded using such mobile apps by more than 100,000 participants during the City Nature Challenge. The documented observations covered 73,000+ species among which over thousands were endangered species.
This crowd sourced data, if verified as “research-grade,” becomes increasingly valuable for scientific studies and federal environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).Though the data does have limitations — such as geographic and seasonal bias — citizen science platforms are enabling people from all backgrounds to contribute to climate and conservation research.
More importantly, citizen science apps are not only serving as databases, but also connecting science with the public, turning everyday observations into powerful evidence. While biodiversity is continuously declining and climate change is accelerating, this growing digital archive of life may become a key tool in safeguarding ecosystems across the globe.
