From Your Neighborhood to Global Policy: The Power of Citizen Science

Written by Anukriti Sharma (Co-Chair, IUCN Citizen Science Task Force & Member, CitizenScience.Asia) as a collaborative contribution between the Citizen Science Global Partnership and the IUCN Citizen Science Task Force for the International Day for Biological Diversity 2026.

You do not need to be a scientist to contribute to science. With a bit of training and minimal tools, anyone can generate data that matters. You just need to get into the field, observe, and share what you find.

In 2022, naturalist Ashwin Viswanathan spotted an unfamiliar beetle in the Nilgiri Hills of India’s Western Ghats. He photographed it and uploaded it to iNaturalist, an online biodiversity platform. Experts quickly identified it as Gonipterus platensis, an invasive Australian weevil not previously documented in peninsular India. That single observation alerted scientists to a threat to eucalyptus plantations and triggered targeted surveillance, although the species had likely been present in the region since at least 2019. 

This is citizen science in action. And it is happening every day, across the world, at a scale that is transforming how we understand and preserve life on Earth.

What is Citizen Science?

Citizen science is the participation of everyday people in scientific research. Contributors might collect data in the field, help design a research project, or analyze and communicate findings. And it is not a new idea. 

Long before the term existed, ordinary people were recording biodiversity in ways that have proven invaluable to science. Take Japan’s cherry blossom records for example: flowering dates have been tracked by locals for nearly 1,200 years! That record is now considered crucial to understanding how climate change may be shifting seasonal patterns in nature. 

However, what is new today is the technology that connects individual observations, quickly and at scale, to the researchers and institutions that need them most. 

Before We Read On…

Every year, the International Day for Biological Diversity invites us to reflect on our relationship with nature. This year, the theme is ‘acting locally for global impact,’ and citizen science offers one of the most concrete answers to that call. Whether you are a conservationist, a policymaker, or simply someone who cares about nature, this article is for you. 

For a deeper dive into citizen science, take a look at the IUCN Citizen Science Explainer Brief.

Why It Is Critical Right Now

The biodiversity crisis is not a future threat. One million species are currently at risk of extinction, 75% of the Earth’s land surface has been significantly altered by human activity, and wildlife populations have declined by an average of 73% since 1970. The consequences are far-reaching: biodiversity loss threatens food systems, water security, and health in ways that affect billions of people.

What makes this harder to address is that much of what is happening in terms of global changes remains unrecorded. The monitoring infrastructure needed to track rapid biodiversity change simply cannot cover the ground that needs covering! There are too many habitats, too many species, and too few researchers or scientists to reach them all. The knowledge gap is as urgent as the ecological one.

This is precisely where citizen science becomes critical. People living closest to biodiversity, those who know their local forests, wetlands, coastlines, and fields, can observe and record what no research team could replicate at that scale.

Many Ways to Take Part

Citizen science for biodiversity conservation and monitoring takes many forms, and there is truly something for everyone. It can mean recording wildlife in places you already visit, monitoring local water bodies, counting pollinators, documenting invasive species, or tracking seasonal ecological changes over time. Here are some of the easiest ways to get started.

With your community 

Join a bioblitz! Events like the City Nature Challenge, Asia Nature Challenge, and the Great Backyard Bird Count are competitive, social, and fun, and the data they generate is real science. They are a great way to get started alongside friends, colleagues, or your local community. 

And if you are looking for a place to start right now, a special bioblitz is running on iNaturalist in celebration of the International Day for Biological Diversity. Sign up and join the project here.

Not sure where else to begin? The Citizen Science Global Partnership connects you to regional citizen science organizations around the world. Reach out to the one nearest you to find information on projects you can join locally! 

From Local Observation to Global Impact

Every record submitted through a citizen science platform has the potential to travel far. Data flows into global repositories like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), which holds billions of species occurrence records. And at least half of these records originate from citizen science (in fact, iNaturalist alone has been cited in over 7,000 scientific papers). Researchers can draw on these records to identify where species are under pressure, where ecosystems are changing, and where conservation investment is most needed.

The policy reach is equally significant. Research shows that 63% of the indicators used to track progress under twelve major multilateral environmental agreements can be informed by citizen or community monitoring, including those under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). 

Citizen science directly supports several priorities within the CBD’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), from detecting invasive species like Gonipterus platensis under Target 6 to strengthening biodiversity data and knowledge-sharing under Target 21. The framework also emphasizes education, awareness-raising, and public participation in Background paragraph 22 and Section K, positioning citizen science as an important part of how global biodiversity goals are implemented. 

When citizen-generated data is designed to align with official indicators and reporting formats, it can feed directly into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, SDG tracking systems, and climate risk assessments. Local action is not a supplement to global policy. It is part of how global policy gets built, tracked, and held to account.

Networks like the Citizen Science Global Partnership are working to ensure that citizen-generated data is standardized, recognized, and integrated into exactly these kinds of reporting processes. And that growing recognition is increasingly being reflected in global conservation spaces as well. At the 2025 IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025, a resolution was formally adopted recognizing citizen science as an important tool for supporting and democratizing conservation. 

Start Today!

Whether you are an individual looking to connect with nature or an organization working on biodiversity, citizen science has something to offer. 

For individuals, the barrier to entry is low: download iNaturalist or eBird, join a local bioblitz, volunteer with a group like Adventure Scientists, or sign up for a project on Zooniverse. Start with a place you care about and the habit of paying attention to it. 

For organizations, citizen science is a source of credible, large-scale biodiversity data that can strengthen conservation programs, support national reporting obligations, and contribute to progress under the CBD.  Today, research increasingly shows trained community observers produce data comparable to professional monitoring when guided by clear protocols and expert verification.

Either way, the science is real, the need is urgent, and the invitation is open. Citizen science connects the people who observe nature with the people who act on that knowledge, and both are indispensable. This International Day for Biological Diversity, wherever you sit in that chain, add your part to it.