Ciência cidadã extrema: Uma nova abordagem

Abstract

Biodiversity conservation is an issue of central concern worldwide. In the last decades,
thousands of protected areas were created to secure the preservation of the planet's biodiversity. A large
number of protected areas are inhabited by people who rely on the use of natural resources not only for
their livelihoods, but also for their social and cultural reproduction. In many cases, local populations have
been directly responsible for sustainably managing these complex ecosystems for centuries. Citizen Science
initiatives - understood as the participation of amateurs, volunteers and enthusiasts in scientific projects
- have engaged people in scientific production and environmental monitoring projects, but have usually
limited their participation to data collection and are normally placed in affluent places, excluding people
with low or no literacy and who live in remote areas. Traditional peoples and communities have an extensive
knowledge of the natural aspects of the areas they permanently inhabit, which can be very beneficial forsuccessful biodiversity management and monitoring. Therefore, when it comes to biodiversity monitoring in
protected areas inhabited by people, their engagement in initiatives is key, and can lead to a win-win scenario.
The Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) is an interdisciplinary research group that was created in 2011 at
University College London to advance the current mode of Citizen Science, and it seeks to push beyond the
edges of current Citizen Science practice. The idea is to allow any community, anywhere in the world - from
marginalised groups living in urban areas to hunter gatherers in the rainforest - to start a Citizen Science
project that will deal with the issues that concern them. This article will outline the various aspects that make
Citizen Science "extreme" in the work of ExCiteS, by looking at its theories, methods and tools, and will
present the current case studies around the world involving traditional communities. Finally, it will highlight
the main concern of the group, which is making participation truly effective, and will suggest how biodiversity monitoring initiatives can be carried out in collaborative ways which benefit everyone involved.