2020-10-29 | Citizen-Science project of the IWM becomes official project of the UN Decade on Biodiversity
For their cooperative project "Experiencing biodiversity. How nature research benefits from interactive web maps on your own doorstep", the Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (IfL), the Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) and the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) were honored as official projects of the UN Decade on Biodiversity at the end of October. The initiative launched by the United Nations is designed to counteract the worldwide decline in natural diversity.
"Experiencing Biodiversity" is one of 13 projects for the promotion of citizen science projects for which the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) provided about 5 million euros in funding from 2018 to 2021. In the joint project, the scientists have developed the web portal ornitho-regioportal.de for the analysis of ornithological observation data with extensive citizen science support. In order to ensure that this data can be used and evaluated by the public, the Realistic Depictions lab of the IWM attached great importance to the most intuitive handling possible when developing the user interface. The online tool is supposed to be accessible as free software by other Citizen-Science projects.
In its statement, the jury was impressed by the idea, the implementation and the results of the joint project and praised the commitment to the preservation of biological diversity in Germany. Further information on the project