Roger Fradera and colleagues explore the nexus through citizen science, in their Nexus Network thinkpiece.
The authors say
Citizens are the guardians of their local environment and…often know the places where they live better than regulators, policymakers and industry. Local citizens will usually be the first to notice changes in their immediate environment, whether instant changes, such as a pollution spill or gradual changes, such as species decline.
Citizen science can provide a powerful mechanism to help tackle environmental and social challenges.
The authors make a number of recommendations, including:
- Inclusivity: a co-created citizen science approach is likely to be more appropriate both to address the more complex nexus issues and to engage all sectors of society.
- Engagement: Citizen science practitioners and nexus scientists should explore developing citizen science programmes with multi-scale engagement of citizens, for example programmes focusing on a nexus issue that combine local, citizen-led or co-created projects.
- Barriers: Research is needed to understand the motivations, attitudes and willingness to change behaviours across all nexus stakeholders, and to better understand and find solutions to barriers.
Read the thinkpiece here Fradera_final22Jan2016
Image credit: with thanks to Graham Wallace.
