Encouraging citizen science       

In 2024 the ZSL Estuaries & Wetlands Conservation team worked with Let’s Go Outside and Learn CIC on a project funded through the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to better understand the barriers to engaging a more diverse pool of volunteer citizen scientists to their projects.

The project aimed to identify methods or approaches to widening participation in environmental citizen science projects delivered by ZSL including the Citizen Crane Project. Read the report written for the project: Barriers to engaging in Citizen Science: Feedback report to ZSL

This is just one of the ways that we are working to encourage more engagement by local communities in the Crane catchment as part of the Crane Smarter Water Catchment initiative.  This project has been selected as the urban pilot for Thames Water’s Smarter Water Catchments (SWC), and we have been working with the Crane Valley Partnership and others since 2022.