Exploring citizen scientists’ values through the Nature Futures Framework

The New Zealand Garden Bird Survey (NZGBS) is an annual citizen science event where participants count the maximum number and type of birds they see or hear in their communities. The bird counts are then used to calculate how bird populations change over 5- and 10-year timeframes at different spatial scales across New Zealand.

Most citizen science evaluation focuses on making sure citizens do the science right and stay doing it. While this is important, we were interested in understanding the outcomes fostered through the NZGBS, and how this prompts impacts at individual and collective scales. We used the NFF to make visible the diverse human-nature values that prompt participation in, and are expressed through, counting and reporting birds.

Some NZGBS participants highlighted the intrinsic value and beauty of birds (nature for nature). They described how participation in the NZGBS reminds them of this intrinsic value, and the resourcing that goes into the dataset reflects this intrinsic value. Other participants highlighted the human wellbeing outcomes of doing the NZGBS (nature for society). These benefits included the emotional or affective experiences such as joy, amusement, feeling calm or relaxed, and being entertained and curious. Finally, other participants described how observing and counting birds makes them feel connected to both nature and other people who care about these matters in New Zealand (nature as culture). Many of these participants emphasised how the NZGBS both reminded, and enabled them, to express care for nature in a collective effort that involved other people who share this value.

In this example the NFF lens helped create greater visibility for the relational (nature as culture) aspects citizen science can foster – both between people and nature – and between people. Most citizen science projects and associated evaluations are good at theorising the values in the NFF related to nature for nature (science about nature) and to nature for society (ecosystem services and wellbeing benefits). They are less well equipped to evaluate nature as culture. The NFF can help nature-based citizen science projects to better accommodate all perspectives to contribute to building the people-nature connection that is urgently needed to address pressing social and environmental challenges.

The study has been used to better understand the link between citizen science and action to support nature. Our analysis shows that citizen science projects like the NZGBS do not require people to agree on, or to even articulate, a shared set of values before they can participate. Rather, through the collective practice of doing something (like observing and counting birds), citizen science projects can contribute to a wider network of people and groups who actively shape the valuing of biodiversity in specific contexts.