MIPP - Monitoring of insects with public participation
LIFE11 NAT/IT/000252
Object
Insects protected by the Habitats Directive, data collection through the "Citizen Science" method.
Objective
The aim is to increase knowledge about presence, distribution and phenology, on the national territory, of the target species of community interest, throught the collection of data with the participation of the citizens. Filling these gaps is in fact vital for better understanding how and where to intervene for preventing the disappearance thereof.
Good Practice Description
The “Citizen Science” data collection method is based on the active involvement of citizens in scientific research. The MIPP project adopted this methodology in the collection of data concerning 9 species of protected insects (beetles, orthoptera and lepidoptera), since their distribution at the Italian level reported scarce and fragmented information.
Through an App for smartphones, or by connecting to the portal on the Project site, citizens were able to send a photograph of the animal which, after an evaluation of the photo by the project staff and any confirmation that the species is of interest, generated a reporting point on a map. The data also became part of a database of the Ministry of the Environment which collects all the distribution data of the species of fauna interest in Italy.
Territorial Context
All the Italian territory.
Replicability conditions
The active involvement of citizens for signaling, recognition and monitoring activities can be replicated everywhere and for all species, both animal and vegetable. However, not only awareness and promotion campaigns via social networks and the web must be envisaged, but also actions to provide information for the recognition, ecology and life cycle of the species monitored.
Dissemination material
From the GoProFor database, in the final part of the good practice file, it is possible to download useful material for the recognition and reporting of insects and in particular the "Guidelines for monitoring protected saproxylic beetles in Europe" and the "Layman's report " of the project.
Presentation of the Nature Reserve of Bosco Fontana
The project that developed this good practice was coordinated by the Centro Nazionale per lo Studio e la Conservazione della Biodiversità Forestale Carabinieri "Bosco Fontana". A video explains what it is and who manages an important reality for Italian forest conservation.