Can we apply citizen science in the monitoring of mammals at European level?

EFSA aims to improve European capacities for monitoring wildlife populations. Therefore, it awarded the ENETWILD consortium to assess the viability of the application of citizen science in the monitoring of mammals at European level, evaluating possible limitations, advantages and added values, as well as promoting the best practices that would increase the quality of data and the participation of citizens. The specific objectives are: (i) to look for communication strategies differentiated by countries, languages and cultures to involve citizens in the collection of data on the geographical distribution and abundance of the mammal population in Europe using web platforms and / or mobile devices (such as phones and tablets); (ii) to propose and implement citizen communication and participation strategies to encourage the collection of high quality data; (iii) propose and apply a method to evaluate the quality of the data collected by citizens and compare them with the data collected by professionals, (iv) to evaluate the feasibility of the application of citizen science in the monitoring of wildlife at European level, and provide information on potential limitations, advantages and added values, as well as on the best practices that promote data quality and crowd participation. The 2-year project is developed in two phases: in the first, the strategies are implemented in 4 pilot countries (Germany, Croatia, Spain and Poland), and later, taking profit from the experience developed, to expand the approach to the rest of Europe, mainly through communication tools and use of social networks