Citizen science and monitoring forest pests: a beneficial alliance?

de Groot, Maarten; Pocock, Michael J.O. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4375-0445; Bonte, Jochem; Fernandez-Conradi, Pilar; Valdés-Correcher, Elena. 2023 Citizen science and monitoring forest pests: a beneficial alliance? Current Forestry Reports, 9 (1). 15-32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40725-022-00176-9

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Abstract/Summary

• Purpose of the Review: One of the major threats to tree health, and hence the resilience of forests and their provision of ecosystem services, is new and emerging pests. Therefore, forest health monitoring is of major importance to detect invasive, emerging and native pest outbreaks. This is usually done by foresters and forest health experts, but can also be complemented by citizen scientists. Here, we review the use of citizen science for detection and monitoring, as well as for hypothesis-driven research and evaluation of control measures as part of forest pest surveillance and research. We then examine its limitations and opportunities and make recommendations on the use of citizen science for forest pest monitoring. • Recent Findings: The main opportunities of citizen scientists for forest health are early warning, early detection of new pests, monitoring of impact of outbreaks and scientific research. Each domain has its own limitations, opportunities and recommendations to follow, as well as their own public engagement strategies. The development of new technologies provides many opportunities to involve citizen scientists in forest pest monitoring. To enhance the benefits of citizen scientists’ inclusion in monitoring, it is important that they are involved in the cocreation of activities. • Summary: Future monitoring and research may benefit from tailor-made citizen science projects to facilitate successful monitoring by citizen scientists and expand their practice to countries where the forest health sector is less developed. In this sense, citizen scientists can help understand and detect outbreaks of new pests and avoid problems in the future.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1007/s40725-022-00176-9
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Biodiversity (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	2198-6436
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
Additional Keywords:	forest health, community science, forest management, awareness raising, forest protection
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment Data and Information
Date made live:	20 Jun 2023 15:56 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/534728

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