How does nature conservation citizen science affect policy and decision-making? A review

Abstract

The necessity of expanding our understanding of how Nature Conservation Citizen Science projects contribute to decision-making is frequently emphasized in related scientific studies. A literature review was conducted about the impacts of NCCS projects on policy and decision-making. Peer-reviewed scientific papers published between 2014 and 2024 were used to identify: a) the forms that NCSS projects affected conservation policy, b) the most frequent strategies used in the studies to determine that impact and c) the common challenges encountered for affecting policy. Our results show that more than half of the reviewed publications mention that projects begin with aspirations to make a meaningful contribution to conservation policy, but they rarely share their data with official databases (e.g. official monitoring systems at the local, national, or global levels that implement governmental policy). Our results also show that NCCS projects tend to inform decision-making at early policy stages (e.g. informing policy) and are less common at later phases (e.g. formulation or implementation).  Case studies and surveys were most often used to determine the effect. To truly influence national conservation policies, improving channels to communicate with decision-makers is needed and challenges with improving data quality to ensure scientific rigor also need to be addressed.