Citizen Science
Habitats & Heritage citizen science programme offers people from across the community the opportunity to gather meaningful information to better understand the environment across the area. Our learning from this data can help shape the future of our work and changes in the local environment. It has never been more vital to track these changes in order to safeguard our environment for the future. See below for how you can get involved and become a citizen scientist.
What is Citizen Science?
Citizen science happens when the non-scientific community (anyone who wants to) gets involved with the collection and analysis of data. It’s typically gathering information about people’s observations of the natural world. It’s a great way for everyone to get engaged with conservation initiatives and learn more about the natural world. It also provides a valuable resource, helping to provide much larger datasets than researchers alone could capture.
You may have already taken part in some citizen science, be it through national schemes (like the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch) or an app-based data collection, or this may be your first time! Habitats & Heritage are looking for anyone and everyone to get involved and make a difference locally. There are many different ways to help, from reporting what’s in your garden, to monitoring roadside verges.
Please see below for different projects you can be involved in!
Live Projects
Garden Survey
We want to better understand what is in your garden to support wildlife. 25% of London green spaces is private gardens, so it’s a vital space for wildlife in the city. With some information about your garden, we can better understand the wildlife connectivity and identify key corridors across our local area. This can help identify important areas for protection and potential areas to further improve the green corridors through schemes like our Green Hubs project.
Find out more about the Garden survey here.
Or if you’re ready to enter the information about your garden, please complete this form.
Species Sightings Reporting
As part of our Biodiversity action plans, we want to monitor key priority species across our local area to gain a better understanding of current species and the impact of our ongoing work. Some of the species we want to know more about are: Bats, Birds, Pollinators, and Hedgehogs!
Find out more about the species and how you can help here.
Or, if you have already had a sighting of one of our key species, or something you think is exciting, report it here.
Monitoring Wild Flower Abundance on Roadside Verges
We are currently recruiting citizen scientists to take part in a monitoring programme of your local roadside verges. The scheme will include full training and is open to all. If you are interested in becoming a road verge citizen scientist, please get in touch at biodiversity@habitatsandheritage.org.uk
Find out more about this citizen science scheme here
