Through the Erasmus+ Uforest project, CREAF is opening a 15-minute survey aimed at people interested in promoting change in cities and filling them with trees and urban greenery. The survey will be used to create a custom-made training program.
Creating and validating a methodology to generate citizen science observatories is the common thread of the European project Ground Truth 2.0, which has worked with 4 observatories in Europe (Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden) and 2 in Africa (Kenya and Zambia) in actual operating conditions.
We are in year one after the first pandemic. The planet is occupied entirely by humans who still believe in GDP ... Well, not entirely... A research center populated by a little bit of everything, the truth, is looking for ways to keep the planet habitable for our species.
The European project Clearing House has today launched a survey of primary and secondary school teachers throughout Catalonia to discover whether or not they hold classes outdoors, what they feel the drawbacks or obstacles to doing so are, and in what subject areas they bring up urban green spaces.
Cities across Europe and China are preparing to green themselves. The Sino-European project Clearing House was officially launched and will be expanding the knowledge of trees and forests in urban areas.
CREAF and the companies Altran and Starlab have led the design of RitmeNatura.cat, a citizen observatory that encourages members of the public to ‘adopt’ a plant, record the changes it undergoes and provide data that can be used to study the effects of climate change.
Corina Basnou is a postdoctoral biologist working at CREAF since 2005. Currently, she is studying the topics of ecosystem service and biodiversity.
ALTER-Net, the network of European experts on biodiversity and ecosystem services, has published a review article on citizen science and learning in the journal Conservation Biology. The authors stress that in order for participative projects to reach their potential scientists should become more involved and not remain the background.
The creation of cartography for ecosystem services represents a new tool for territorial analysis and planning. As of very recently the province of Barcelona now has a particularly extensive and detailed mapping of ecosystem services at its disposal. It is hoped that this will be extended to all of Catalonia.
