Città della Scienza sharing “City Nature Challenge 2021” from April 30 to May 3, 2021

Become a Citizen Scientist and participate in the monitoring of urban biodiversity together with other Italian cities!

A public park, a garden, a lawn, a vegetable garden, a roof and a smartphone, together with a great desire to get involved: these are the elements that – from 30 April to 3 May 2021, thanks to City Nature Challenge – will transform citizens of Naples and its province in real citizens-scientists. The international initiative, supported by Città della Scienza, will bring all “nature curious” to take pics and record the sounds of nature inside their own city. All collected data can be uploaded to iNaturalist, a free app open to everyone used all over the world. In addition to the fun and the opportunity to learn a lot of information and curiosities about the environment around us, there will also be the satisfaction of collaborating with researchers for greater knowledge on local and national biodiversity. City Nature Challenge is also a challenge between cities, a way to put the participating cities in competition / collaboration on the theme of knowledge and protection of nature.

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The City Nature Challenge is an international recording initiative of naturalistic observations of wild flora and fauna. The initiative was initially born as a challenge between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 2016 thanks to the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.

More than 350 cities from 38 countries will participate in the 2021 edition. In Italy, the initiative involves various cities sharing “Cluster Biodiversity Italy” as follows: Trinitapoli, with the CEA-Casa di Ramsar body; Bari, with WWF Levante Adriatico; Cisternino, with the Anthropia Association – CEA Cisternino; Lecce, with the WWF Salento; Manduria, with the Regional Natural Reserves Oriented Body of the eastern Taranto coast; Taranto, with the WWF Taranto; Milazzo, with the organization MuMa – Museo del Mare; Catania, with the Mediterranean Marine Fauna Authority; Naples, with Città della Scienza; Massa Lubrense with the Marine Protected Area of ​​Punta Campanella; Procida, with the Marine Protected Area of ​​the Kingdom of Neptune; Portofino, with the Outdoor Portofino body; Trento, with MUSE – Science Museum; Trieste, with the WWF Trieste; Bolzano and Brunico, with the South Tyrol Museum of Natural Sciences.

“Participating is simple – explain the cluster coordinators, Antonio Riontino and Alessandra Flore, head of the Natural Sciences department of Cesab (Research Center in Environmental Sciences and Biotechnologies) – during the days of the challenge you can explore the territory in which you live, or take part to nature excursions organized by institutions, taking photos of wild flora and fauna with your smartphone or digital camera “The photos thus collected can be uploaded to the 2 platforms, iNaturalist or Natusfera, and from 4 to 9 May, with the With the help of expert naturalists and scientists from all over the world, the species photographed will be identified. On May 10, the results will be announced and published worldwide on the official website citynaturechallenge.org

WWF Italy, WWF Young, Aigae (Italian Association of Environmental Hiking Guides), and AFNI (Italian Naturalist Photographers Association) with their local groups, will contribute to collect data on biodiversity in the cities participating in the initiative. .

This citizen science project, literally the science of citizens – explains Alessandra Flore – allows naturalists to collect data useful for scientific research, as biodiversity represents a heritage of inestimable wealth, whose protection and conservation are essential for the survival of ‘humanity

The City Nature Challenge – continues Antonio Riontino – becomes an opportunity to learn about the flora and fauna that populate our cities, in the marine and terrestrial environment, and be the protagonists of a scientific research project“.

The initiative has the patronage of various institutions including the Ministry of Ecological Transition, ISPRA, Federparchi-Europarc, and others; with Cesab which is the lead partner of the project.

CNC 2021 Brochure Inaturalist Citizens Brochure Natusfera Citizens Brochure
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