Participate and promote the City Nature Challenge, the citizen science initiative that allows to assess the biodiversity status of cities
The citizen science project "Biodiversity in pose" of the National Biodiversity Network (ISPRA / MiTE) is among the partners of the Italian Biodiversity Cluster for the 2022 edition of the City Nature Challenge (CNC), the international competition scheduled from April 29 to May 2, which competes with citizens interested in the environment in the survey and recording of naturalistic observations of wild flora and fauna, in the urban and extra-urban context.
The City Nature Challenge combines the practicality of technology with the beauty of nature: thanks to the iNaturalist digital platform, which can be downloaded for free from a PC or smartphone, it is possible to record the GPS coordinates of the sighting place and the recognized animal or plant species, by uploading a photograph and asking possible support in recognizing the web community.
Citizens of the Italian cities participating in the initiative (Lecce, Trinitapoli, Manduria, Catania, Milazzo, Metropolitan City of Messina, Naples, AMP Punta Campanella, APM Regno di Nettuno, Genoa, Siena, Trento, Trieste and Bolzano), will be able to contribute, contextually to the citizens of over 300 cities around the world, to the detection of wild fauna and flora on the local territory and to provide useful data to researchers.
In this edition, by joining the initiative of the National Biodiversity Network (NNB), citizens who are not in the Italian cities indicated above, will be able to send photographic observations relating to the national territory by joining the "Biodiversity in pose" project, searchable on iNaturalist.
It is possibile to participate individually or by forming groups (schools, associations, museums, etc), you can also send audio films (animal sounds and / or rustle of leaves) as well as upload photographic observations exploring marine habitats with the involvement of divers and snorkelers . All observations will be collected in the iNaturalist database available to any enthusiast and researcher who needs information about the fauna and flora of the mapped place.
On 9 May 2022, the worldwide results will be announced and published on the official website, for each city the results will be published with respect to the number of naturalistic observations collected, the number of flora and fauna species recorded and the number of people involved.
The international event is managed by the Community Science team of the California Academy of Sciences and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, while the CESAB with the Cluster Biodiversity Italy coordinates the project for Italy which has the patronage of several institutions including the ISPRA / SNPA and the Ministry of Ecological Transition.