Marine, Coast and Estuarine Citizen Science Review to inform marine Natural Capital in English Waters

The primary aim of the NCEA programme is to collect data to build the evidence base on the extent and condition of England's natural capital. Citizen Science is one of the cross-cutting tools we have for collecting these data, alongside professional surveys, and earth observation. Citizen Science is already essential to environmental policy, forming the majority of current biodiversity monitoring in the UK. It complements and augments standard scientific approaches. Critically it has the potential to contribute even more significant amounts of useful data in places and of a richness that cannot be achieved by other means.

The 'NCEA Citizen Science: Strategy for 2022-2025' (Feb 2022, internal report) outlines strategic priorities to develop the use of citizen science within Defra's arms' length bodies (ALBs) with a vision of engaging people with their natural world to contribute to better knowledge and decision-making for the recovery of nature.

Priority 2 of the report highlights the need to clarify the current citizen science landscape including summarising the existing citizen science activities and recording what citizen science projects are more closely related to NCEA and why.

The focus of this contract is to develop a comprehensive review of Citizen Science (CS) initiatives in the marine, coastal and estuarine environments around England to understand the evidence base for available natural capital assets.

Initiatives of interest to the Marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem A approach are both biological and social;

Social and economic: includes health and wellbeing, demographics, recreation and tourism, economics

Ecological: includes benthic, fish, marine mammals, and seabirds

Within each of these areas of interest further subdivision of evidence resolution is required, for example, for ecological: species' occurrence, condition, distribution, abundance, phenology demographics, and for social: recreational activity, marine litter, time spent at coast, estimate spend, distance travelled, feelings, perceptions, emotional connection.

For further detail, please refer to attached documentation.