Tree Health Citizen Science in UK Opportunities, Challenges and Future Roadmap
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Tree Health Citizen Science in UK Opportunities, Challenges and Future Roadmap Dr. Nidhi Gupta & Dr. David Slawson Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London September, 2019 Acknowledgments This report is based on the knowledge and evidence generated under the research fellowship (Project Number P56834/ Defra Contract number TH0147) funded by Defra, 2015-2018. We owe an immense debt of gratitude to Jake Morris, our Defra Project Officer, for his helpful advice and support throughout. Many thanks are due to the steering committee members: Nicola Spence (Defra); Tom Flood (Defra Civil Society Partnership Network); Judy Ling Wong (Defra Civil Society Partnership Network and Black Environment Network); Marina Pacheco (Defra Civil Society Partnership Network and The Mammal Society); Zen Makuch (Imperial College, London); Hillary Geoghegan (University of Reading); and Michael Pocock (NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) for their guidance, suggestions and valuable insights throughout the fellowship. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance and support of the project leads/coordinators: Peter Crow (Observatree); Hayley New (NPMS); John Parker (CSP); Kylie Harrison (Ancient Tree Inventory Project) who agreed to participate in the case study research reported in Chapter 2 of the report. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Helen Jones from the Woodland Trust in recruiting interviewees and Susanne Raum for conducting additional interviews for the Observatree case study. Deepest gratitude to all those professionals and volunteers who gave up their time to participate in the interviews. Without them this study would not have been possible. Cite this report as: Gupta, N., and Slawson, D., 2019. Tree Health Citizen Science in UK: Opportunities, Challenges and Future Roadmap. Imperial College, London. Contents Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1: Evidence needs and the role of citizen science in tree health science, management and policy in the UK ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7 Chapter 2: Tree Health Citizen Science: Exploring the current landscape, opportunities, barriers and underlying motivations…………………………………………………………………………………………………….47 Chapter 3: The Future of Tree Health Citizen Science: Deliberations from a Participatory Research Workshop………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..93 Chapter 4: Future Delivery of Citizen Science in Tree Health: Recommendations…………………108 Appendix A-F………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..115 References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………140 Executive Summary Introduction & Research Context The UK’s trees, woodlands and forests are a vital national asset providing multiple economic, social and environmental benefits. However, in recent years there has been an increasing number of pest and pathogen incursions and outbreaks on trees. Increased global plant trade (more volume, from more countries and of more exotic plant species), the effects of climate change and changes in nursery practices (e.g. public demand for large semi-mature trees) are believed to be contributory factors in the increase in incidents. Threat from pests and pathogens increases the risk of incurring severe economic, social and environmental losses, not only through the loss of trees but also potentially through losses of other native flora which may be susceptible to the same pests and pathogens. Early identification of these pests and pathogens increases the chance of successful eradication, containment or control. In the face of the potentially large geographical scale of pest and disease spread across trees, woods and forests, both in commercial forestry settings, but also the wider environment, the government has limited institutional capacity to provide for effective tree health surveillance on its own. Part of the solution to this challenge is to have effective support from a wide range of stakeholders including the public. Citizen Science (CS) provides opportunities for engaging people and is seen as a powerful research tool for undertaking environmental monitoring and scientific research. It involves the collection and analysis of scientific data by volunteers (members of the public) and encompasses a broad range of projects. One advantage of CS is that volunteers can make observations over large geographical scales that can be too large for teams of professional scientists to study alone. The discovery in 2012 of Chalara fraxinea (now called Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) on ash in the UK significantly raised the public and political profile of tree heath. The confirmation of Chalara generated extensive media comment, followed by a range of government initiatives and interventions by citizens and other concerned stakeholders. During this time, several CS projects were set up to mobilize and involve the general public in spotting infected trees in their local areas. Recognising that CS represents a key dimension of a collaborative approach to safeguard the health of the nation's trees and forests, and given that the current tree health CS landscape is still fairly nascent, now is an appropriate time for a stock-take of the portfolio of projects and the data they are producing. In order to do so, Defra commissioned the research presented in this report to develop an understanding of the current and potential contribution of citizen science to tree health by reviewing CS projects on tree health in the UK and by exploring different stakeholder views. The research was also intended to propose policy recommendations and strategies to shape the future delivery of tree health citizen science projects in the UK and to maximise the usefulness of the data they produce. This research presents a comprehensive analysis of the current landscape of tree/plant health citizen science (CS) projects in the UK. It has brought together the views of many of the relevant stakeholders involved in tree health and CS and who are likely to shape the future application of tree health citizen science. Their opinions are therefore highly valuable and timely to inform the planning and delivery of future CS initiatives related to tree health. Most of the research done on CS in the past has explored the views and experiences of the volunteers alone. Research reported in this 1 report adopted a unique approach of exploring the opinions and experiences of professionals working within projects as well as volunteers. The rationale being that their continued involvement and motivation is key to the design, delivery and implementation of successful CS projects in the future. Methodology This publication reports the results of interviews and workshop (N = 110) conducted with professionals and volunteers involved in tree health science, management and policy and in CS projects, in order to learn from their experiences. This report is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 explores the potential for CS across tree health science, management and policy in the UK by mapping the current tree health evidence needs, types and sources, and analysing requirements for additional, improved or enhanced evidence. Interviews were conducted with respondents from science, management and policy stakeholder groups to develop understanding of the current evidence landscape in tree health and the role of CS in addressing evidence needs, i.e. how can the ‘supply’ of CS be best configured to meet these demands. Chapter 2 presents details on the current landscape of tree health CS projects in the UK. Interviews were held with professionals and volunteers involved in five specific case studies of CS projects to obtain information on volunteer and professional motivations and experience of participation, and their views on CS in general. Chapter 3 reports on the findings from the participatory research workshop titled “The Future of Tree Health Citizen Science: Opportunities and Challenges” hosted by Defra and Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, on July 5th, 2017 at Fera, Sand Hutton, York. The Workshop involved policy-makers, scientists, managers (of either land or organizations) and CS practitioners with an informed interest in tree health citizen science. Through a mixture of presentations, break-out discussions/feedback and voting on priorities, a collective consensus was obtained on (a) issues, barriers and challenges; (b) values opportunities and advantages; and (c) future of tree health CS. Chapter 4 brings together the final recommendations for future delivery of tree health CS based on the findings from the empirical research reported in the first three chapters. Key Findings In chapter 1 the most frequent tree health evidence need cited was scientific knowledge on pests and diseases including surveillance information. Although well-addressed by current information sources, improvements were sought on: accessibility and compatibility of different data sources; additional information on the distribution of species and habitats; and on the movement of plant material. Even though the CS landscape if fairly nascent in the UK tree health sector, a very high level of awareness of CS was highlighted by the interviews. In general, there was a high level of appreciation among the stakeholders that CS has a role to play in addressing their evidence needs. Trained volunteers emerged as a highly valued resource, with recognition that participation should be extend to anyone with an interest in trees (one respondent held the traditional view that a qualified scientist