Page 31 - State of Biodiversity Report 2022/2023

EThekwini Citizen Scientists play a role in collating biodiversity data
Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan (SANBI, CREW Citizen Science Programme Manager)
iNaturalist is an electronic resource for members of the public to share their observations and contribute meaningful biodiversity data to a variety of conservation practices. The powerful tool provides
an exciting entry point into citizen science as it is easily accessible, requiring neither resources nor prior knowledge. South Africa adopted iNaturalist in 2018 as the national biodiversity data collection application. INaturalist has various mechanisms to promote its use and encourage people to gather more data on their local biodiversity. One of these is regular ‘bioblitzes’ carried out around the world. Over the past five years, several cities across Southern Africa have joined the global bioblitz enthusiasm by participating in the internationally organised City Nature Challenge (CNC) and Great Southern Bioblitz (GSB); aimed at recording as many organisms as possible over a four- day period.
South Africa has a variety of data collection projects set up on iNaturalist run on an ongoing basis to collect data at both taxonomic and ecosystem level for meaningful analysis by the conservation authorities, responsible for managing and reporting on biodiversity at the municipal scale. The annual records of both invasive alien species and species of conservation concern that is recorded during the global events is indicative of the meaningful contribution that can result from an activity targeted as a fun-filled nature exploring event.
City Nature Challenge 2023
The CNC 2023 Southern Africa results revealed eThekwini having climbed up the leader board to #1 position in terms of number of observations made and #3 position for the number of species contributed. CNC 2023 Southern African participation gathered 123,847 observations of 8,645+ species (551 of which were species of conservation concern) made by 2,368 observers. In comparison, 190 eThekwini residents contributed 15,152 observations of 2,184+ species (26 were of species of conservation concern). Steve Woodhall, the CNC 2023 eThekwini champion, calculated the average number of observations in CNC2023 per observer in eThekwini was a whisker under 80, which is impressive!
Whilst the most-observed species globally was the Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos), Southern Africa’s Bietou (Osteospermum moniliferum) was the most observed species in the region, and eThekwini’s most observed species was Natal Wild Banana (Strelitzia nicolai).
In Southern Africa, the Cape Dwarf chameleon (Bradypodion pumilum) was the most observed threatened species with just under 100 observations, Protea lepidocarpodendron (Near Threatened) the most observed threatened plant species and Lantana camara the most observed invasive alien species. Blue Duiker was the most observed threatened species in eThekwini, Stangeria eriopus (Vulnerable) the most observed threatened plant species and Bugweed (Solanum mautritianum) the most observed invasive alien species.
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