Citizen Science for the Sustainable Development Goals? The Perspective of German Citizen Science Practitioners on the Relationship between Citizen Science and the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Conceptual models on the synergies between citizen science (CS) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) attribute an important role to CS in monitoring and supporting the achievement of the SDGs. However, recent research on the actual contribution of CS to the SDGs shows that it has so far fallen short of expectations. What previous research has largely neglected to investigate is how CS practitioners themselves view the synergies of CS and the SDGs, and whether the lack of initiative on their part could be a reason for CS’s smaller-than-expected contribution to the SDGs. Therefore, we asked 81 CS practitioners in two separate surveys about which SDGs their research contributes to and how they assess the intersections between their research and the SDGs, as well as the synergies between the SDGs and CS in general. Our survey shows that the vast majority of CS practitioners in Germany see little overlap between their own research and the SDGs, while their assessment of the overall synergies between CS and the SDGs is slightly more positive. Likewise, our data indicates that some CS practitioners are not yet fully familiar with the SDG framework. Based on our findings, we conclude that CS support for the SDGs must still be considered a niche phenomenon in the German CS landscape, and suggest that the contribution of CS to the SDGs could be increased by publishing low-threshold SDG information materials and providing stronger opportunities for CS practitioners to participate in the future evolution of the SDG framework.

Keywords

• citizen science
• sustainability
• sustainable development goals
• public participation in science
• sdg indicators
• sustainability transformations