The City Nature Challenge is back, and your help is needed to record the nature that is thriving in your local area.
This global challenge is taking place in 400 cities across six continents between 30 April and 3 May. It’s a chance for anyone and everyone to contribute to a worldwide study of trees, plants and wildlife in urban areas, helping to shape conservation efforts, support scientific research developments and land management.
You don’t have to be an expert to take part, simply download the iNaturalist app (Google Play or the App Store), take a photograph of nature in your local area, whether that’s a tree, plant, animal or insect, and upload. You don’t even have to know anything about the species you are sharing. Experts will be reviewing and updating the information that’s submitted, so you can log back in later and learn more about what you’ve spotted.
This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a global initiative to map the nature flourishing within urban areas, supporting everything from conservation work to scientific research projects and land management.
And there’s some friendly competition too – every city taking part will be competing to be the one that makes the most observations during the challenge weekend.
On 10 May, we’ll know which city made the most observations, identified the most species and had the most participants as the winners are announced!
What is City Nature Challenge?
- The City Nature Challenge is your chance to share the nature that’s flourishing on your doorstep and contribute to a worldwide study to map the nature that exists urban areas.
- It’s taking place in more than 400 cities across the world, including 14 from the UK
- You can stay local, and be part of something global
- It’s a friendly competition, but it’s also about collaboration, all the host cities are working together for a common aim – to map as much of the natural world as possible.
- Not in a City? That’s fine too. You can still download the app and take part or upload your sightings to iNaturalistUK. You may want to join the City Nature Challenge 2021 Global Project to add your sightings to the worldwide tally. All your observations will be making a valuable contribution to the global study of nature and you can see your data points appear on the UK challenge map.
Why get involved?
- It’s easy, it’s fun and it will make a big difference
- The information you share will play a part in helping to shape conservation efforts, assist with scientific studies and land management
- The more we know the more we can to do support the natural world and make sure it thrives and survives alongside urban development
- All the observations are shared in a global database, with information checked and verified by a worldwide team of experts. The data collected is available to individuals, organisations and businesses across the world and used for a huge variety of purposes.
- It can help with conservation, tracking how nature impacts on the health of our population or how new developments are affecting the natural world. It’s endless! And it couldn’t be done without your help
- Over the last 12 months we’ve all had the chance to explore our local areas more than ever before. At times we might have longed for a change of scene – but now let’s reap the benefits and share what we’ve learnt about the world around us