We are living in an age where biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate, and the global environment is subject to increasing sources of stress. Largely as a result of human activity, over one million plant and animal species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades. While the climate crisis has received more media attention, the underlying causes of biodiversity loss are the same, and some 30-40% of natural solutions to global warming involve preserving biodiversity.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), in 2022 will guide global action on nature through 2030. However, knowledge alone cannot provide enough leverage to trigger government and policy action. It can only inform means to address publicly such a complex and multi-faceted problem.
In this context, digital technologies play a pivotal role (Figure 1). Naturalist collections are a key source of authoritative data on biodiversity, but their collection and curation require considerable resources, both human and material. This situation has been seized upon as an opportunity to engage a larger number and wider scope of people in producing biodiversity data collections (Kelling et al., Citation2009). Collaborative web platforms and mobile applications offer new possibilities for observation and recording, leading Gabrys (Citation2016) to refer to the computerization of environmentalism. These technologies participate in (re)structuring amateur practice and facilitate the participation of the general public in scientific research, as well as increasing the volume of data produced.
