The contributions of citizen science to the United Nations sustainable development goals and other international agreements and frameworks

The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a series of global development targets that were adopted by all UN member states in 2015 to address the world’s most pressing societal, environmental, and economic challenges by 2030 (UN 2015). They include 17 goals and 169 targets covering a wide range of topics from inclusive and equitable education to climate change. The achievement of the SDGs depends on our ability to accurately measure progress towards these topics using timely, relevant, and reliable data (Dang and Serajuddin 2020). To help in the development and implementation of such data and of monitoring mechanisms, a Global Indicator Framework was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2017, which currently includes 231 unique indicators as a set of metrics to deliver information on the status and trends in each SDG target (UN 2017). However, the lack of resources and institutional capacity makes the monitoring of these indicators very challenging for the producers and users of official statistics, including National Statistical Offices (NSOs), line ministries, UN agencies and others that are responsible for compiling and disseminating official statistics (Fraisl et al. 2022)

Participatory Ecological Monitoring (PEM) : participatory research methods for sustainability ‐ toolkit #4

Participatory Ecological Monitoring (PEM) is a conservation methodology aiming to include local communities in the collection and analysis of biodiversity and threats data in a managed conservation zone. Often implemented annually, PEM optimises local knowledge to help understand ecological change which is an essential step towards assessing the success or failure of conservation activity and improving conservation effectiveness

The value and opportunities of community-and citizen-based approaches to tropical forest biodiversity monitoring

The biodiversity sourcebook is accessible in pdf format for free from:•GOFC-GOLD Land Cover Office website: http://www.gofcgold.wur.nl/sites/gofcgold-geobon_biodiversitysourcebook.php•GEO BON website:http://geobon.org

Testing the effectiveness of community-based conservation in conserving biodiversity, protecting ecosystem services, and improving human well-being in Madagascar

This thesis is a scientific contribution towards evaluating the effectiveness of Community-based Conservation (CBC) in saving biodiversity, protecting ecosystem services and enhancing human well-being. The impact of CBC interventions carried out by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust over 109 villages in five conservation areas in Madagascar (Lake Alaotra, Baly Bay National Park, Menabe dry forest, Manombo rain forest, and Nosivolo River) since 1997, were retrospectively evaluated. The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design to contrast changes in a set of biodiversity and human wellbeing indicators in the intervention villages with 109 control villages, which were matched for a range of social and environmental attributes. In Chapter 2, findings suggest that over the period 2000-2014 the CBC approach has impacted the incidence of fire, resulting in a lower rate of increase in fire frequency. Although CBC interventions were not able to reduce forest loss, the rate of deforestation in CBC villages has generally been maintained at lower levels than in control villages. Political disruption, population size and travel cost (access and distance) to the villages were identified as important contributing factors towards an increase in the severity of fires and deforestation while access to mobile phones may help mitigate the pressures. In Chapter 3, results indicate that support to education through CBC interventions is significantly associated with improvements in educational attainment. However, analysis of the historical Index of Health Status at village level did not show evidence that provision of clean drinking water or other health interventions improved public health. In terms of human well-being (Chapter 4), there is no evidence that CBC interventions have any positive impact on the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Since poverty has been identified as a key factor reducing happiness, mutual trust, and power to change local decision-making, the claim that CBC will be effective in enhancing subjective well-being cannot be supported by the evidence from this study. According to the Index of Perception of Valued Ecosystem Services the declines in forest cover between 2000 and 2013 were observed by local people, with people in CBC villages demonstrating a greater propensity to note resulting changes in the provision of ecosystem services. This result could be of value when designing future CBC interventions. Maximum Entropy modelling using a set of environmental GIS layers was performed in Chapter 5 for predicting geographic distribution zones of four globally threatened species living exclusively in the five study areas. Results suggested that over the period 2000-2014 there has been a decline in habitat suitability expressed by a decrease in probability of presence of the species. Vegetation cover is predicted to be the most important factor affecting the variability of species distribution range. Potential factors responsible for the success of some actions and failure, others within the CBC approach are discussed and pragmatic recommendations are given at the end of the thesis. For example, transforming local associations into social enterprise could possibly motivate poorer households to join CBC efforts and thereby improve social and biodiversity impacts in the future.</p

Testing the effectiveness of community-based conservation in conserving biodiversity, protecting ecosystem services, and improving human well-being in Madagascar

This thesis is a scientific contribution towards evaluating the effectiveness of Community-based Conservation (CBC) in saving biodiversity, protecting ecosystem services and enhancing human well-being. The impact of CBC interventions carried out by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust over 109 villages in five conservation areas in Madagascar (Lake Alaotra, Baly Bay National Park, Menabe dry forest, Manombo rain forest, and Nosivolo River) since 1997, were retrospectively evaluated. The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design to contrast changes in a set of biodiversity and human wellbeing indicators in the intervention villages with 109 control villages, which were matched for a range of social and environmental attributes. In Chapter 2, findings suggest that over the period 2000-2014 the CBC approach has impacted the incidence of fire, resulting in a lower rate of increase in fire frequency. Although CBC interventions were not able to reduce forest loss, the rate of deforestation in CBC villages has generally been maintained at lower levels than in control villages. Political disruption, population size and travel cost (access and distance) to the villages were identified as important contributing factors towards an increase in the severity of fires and deforestation while access to mobile phones may help mitigate the pressures. In Chapter 3, results indicate that support to education through CBC interventions is significantly associated with improvements in educational attainment. However, analysis of the historical Index of Health Status at village level did not show evidence that provision of clean drinking water or other health interventions improved public health. In terms of human well-being (Chapter 4), there is no evidence that CBC interventions have any positive impact on the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Since poverty has been identified as a key factor reducing happiness, mutual trust, and power to change local decision-making, the claim that CBC will be effective in enhancing subjective well-being cannot be supported by the evidence from this study. According to the Index of Perception of Valued Ecosystem Services the declines in forest cover between 2000 and 2013 were observed by local people, with people in CBC villages demonstrating a greater propensity to note resulting changes in the provision of ecosystem services. This result could be of value when designing future CBC interventions. Maximum Entropy modelling using a set of environmental GIS layers was performed in Chapter 5 for predicting geographic distribution zones of four globally threatened species living exclusively in the five study areas. Results suggested that over the period 2000-2014 there has been a decline in habitat suitability expressed by a decrease in probability of presence of the species. Vegetation cover is predicted to be the most important factor affecting the variability of species distribution range. Potential factors responsible for the success of some actions and failure, others within the CBC approach are discussed and pragmatic recommendations are given at the end of the thesis. For example, transforming local associations into social enterprise could possibly motivate poorer households to join CBC efforts and thereby improve social and biodiversity impacts in the future.</p

MICROBIAL SYMBIONTS AND NUTRIENTS (N AND P) SHARING: EFFECT ON SOIL MICROBIAL ACTIVITY IN THE UPLAND RICE (Oriza sativa) AND BEAN (Phaseolus vulgaris) INTERCROPPING

The symbiotic association (plant-soil-microorganisms) has an important role in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P)uptake. The main objective of this study is to assess the potential of fungal and rhizobial symbionts as well as the importance of plant-soil-microorganism interactions on microbial dynamics. The upland rice and the beans were cultivated in mono or in co-culture using the rhizospheric soil of the upland rice and beans collected on plots treated with different levels of organic and mineral fertilizers. What about saying: Microbial (fungal and rhizobial) inoculate were constituted by root fragments (rice or bean) collected from previous crop and coded as I1 (root fragments from rice), I2 (root fragments from bean) and I3(mixed root fragments from rice and bean). The results showed that soils inoculated with I1 and I3, were characterized by high phosphatase activity. These two treatments enhance also the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in the aerial part of upland rice intercropped withbean. These results suggest that the bean with its symbiont can be considered as ecological engineers thatstimulate the biological functioning of soils and is beneficial for upland ricecultivation

Occurrence and diversity of stem nodulation in Aeschynomene and Sesbania legumes from wetlands of Madagascar

Abstract Legumes have the ability to establish a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with soil rhizobia that they house in specific organs, the nodules. In most rhizobium-legume interactions, nodulation occurs on the root. However, certain tropical legumes growing in wetlands possess a unique trait: the capacity to form rhizobia-harbouring nodules on the stem. Despite the originality of the stem nodulation process, its occurrence and diversity in waterlogging-tolerant legumes remains underexplored, impeding a comprehensive analysis of its genetics and biology. Here, we aimed at filling this gap by surveying stem nodulation in legume species-rich wetlands of Madagascar. Stem nodulation was readily observed in eight hydrophytic species of the legume genera, Aeschynomene and Sesbania, for which significant variations in stem nodule density and morphology was documented. Among these species, A. evenia, which is used as genetic model to study the rhizobial symbiosis, was found to be frequently stem-nodulated. Two other Aeschynomene species, A. cristata and A. uniflora, were evidenced to display a profuse stem-nodulation as occurs in S. rostrata. These findings extend our knowledge on legumes species that are endowed with stem nodulation and further indicate that A. evenia, A. cristata, A. uniflora and S. rostrata are of special interest for the study of stem nodulation. As such, these legume species represent opportunities to investigate different modalities of the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis and this knowledge could provide cues for the engineering of nitrogen-fixation in non-legume crops