How Can We Do Citizen Science Better? A Case Study Evaluating Grizzly Bear Citizen Science Using Principles of Good Practice in Alberta, Canada

Abstract

Citizen science offers an excellent opportunity to engage the public in scientific data collection, educational opportunities, and applied management. However, the practicalities of developing and implementing citizen science programming are often more complex than considered. Some challenges to effective citizen science include scientists’ skepticism about the ability of public participants to rigorously collect quality data; a lack of clarity on or confidence in the utility of data; scientists’ hesitancy in engaging the public in projects; limited financial commitments; and challenges associated with the temporal and geographic scales of projects. To address these challenges, and provide a foundation upon which practitioners, scientists, and the public can credibly engage in citizen science, the Government of Alberta developed a set of citizen science principles. These principles offer a framework for planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating citizen science projects that extend beyond Alberta. Here, we present a case study using these principles to evaluate GrizzTracker, a citizen science program developed to help inform provincial species-at-risk recovery efforts. While we found that GrizzTracker applied each of the six principles in some way, including successful public engagement, strengthened relationships, and raising public awareness about northwest Alberta’s grizzly bears, we also identified a number of challenges. These included ongoing skepticism from the traditional scientific community about the utility of citizen science and governance challenges related to program leadership, staff capacity, and funding. By using the principles as a guideline, we provide policy recommendations for future citizen science efforts, including considerations for program design, implementation, and evaluation.

Conservation through connection: Approaches to engaging communities in applied grizzly bear research

“…In addition to using my findings to help inform Alberta's grizzly bear recovery policy, I developed important relationships with community members, building appreciation for and sharing knowledge between each other. As a result, our relationships helped to co-produce a population inventory for an understudied grizzly bear population in northwest Alberta, implement bear safety outreach, and design and implementation a local citizen science program called GrizzTracker (Hughes et al, 2021;Hughes et al, 2022). More broadly, my experiences engaging with a diversity of community members in applied research have been invaluable in informing other conservation projects at local and global scales (Morehouse et al, 2020;Fleury and Hughes, 2021;Kimaro and Hughes, 2021;Morehouse et al, 2021;Sibanda et al, 2021a).…”

“…Despite these challenges, we strongly suggest that directly engaging with people in contextually meaningful ways throughout the research process is essential to developing socially-just and culturally-responsive conservation action (Vucetich et al, 2018;Armitage et al, 2019;Hughes and Nielsen 2019;Nie, 2002;Hughes et al, 2020b;Morehouse et al, 2021;Hughes et al, 2022). Here, we share our personal stories of engaging with communities on the unifying topic of grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) conservation, an often-contentious issue in Alberta, Canada.…”

“…Additionally, the cultural norms, beliefs, perspectives and biases that are shared (or not) by different communities can exacerbate these challenges, or even shed light on how to address them (Hill, 2021). Finally, while some scientists may not have training or feel comfortable working with people, which itself can be a barrier to effective community engagement, others are skeptical or even reluctant to engage with communities given personal or agency biases (Burgess et al, 2017;Hughes et al, 2022).…”

Using community science to advance grizzly bear conservation

“…Community science (also known as citizen science) uses various engagement strategies to solicit voluntary civic participation in research studies, usually through data collection activities (Government of Alberta Ministry of Environment and Parks 2020). This can be an effective strategy to develop the public's scientific literacy and develop skills related to, in this case, grizzly bear biology, safety, and conflict mitigation, as well as foster a stewardship ethic for grizzly bear conservation and management ( Kollmuss and Agyeman 2002;Clayton and Myers 2015;Phillips et al 2019;Alberta Environment and Parks 2020;Hughes et al 2022a). Community engagement in scientific initiatives, including those led by government agencies, can help increase public trust in state-led decisionmaking by increasing and improving transparency in reporting outcomes, as well as making data collection more efficient, and supporting data analysis procedures (McKinley et al 2017;Government of Alberta 2020;Hughes et al 2022b).…”

“…This can include educational information on the best available science and research related to grizzly bears, as well as how to stay safe in bear country. Offering opportunities to share and learn can help nurture an ethic of care for grizzly bears, which in turn can aid in the adoption and implementation of grizzly bear recovery efforts (Toomey et al 2020;Hughes et al 2022aHughes et al , 2022b.…”