The City Nature Challenge began as a competition between two US cities in 2016. Since then it has become a global phenomenon: over 450 city-regions participated in 2023. This year, for the first time ever, York residents were able to get involved. Anyone could take part by using the free iNaturalist app to photograph and share images of wildlife and plants that they encounter in their daily lives during the four-day event. The data gathered is shared with a world-wide community of scientists and nature lovers, and helps to map biodiversity in urban areas.
SEI York Affiliated Researcher Smriti Safaya was one of those spearheading the York initiative, promoting not just the benefits for science but also for individuals. In a recent Q&A about the York CNC she explained, “research shows that spending time in nature is good for people’s well-being and encourages people to take more positive action for the environment”.
While living in Hong Kong, Smriti successfully organized similar events, taking the city to one of the top 5 in the world for the number of species logged during the challenge. Hoping to repeat the same success with York, she encouraged as many people as possible to take part.
If you submit records to iNaturalist between 26-29th April 2024 you’ll be helping York get to the top of the UK leaderboard, competing against 22 other UK cities!
Smriti Safaya, SEI York Affiliated Researcher
We’re delighted to announce that York did exceptionally well in the City Nature Challenge! Out of 24 participating cities in the UK, we came in third place for number of people participating, with 221 people making observations. Between them, they logged 12,833 observations, gaining York second place (by only 41 observations) for number of records. And York came first in the UK for the total number of species observed with 1487 different species. Congratulations to everyone involved! See the full UK results.
The City Nature Challenge is an annual global event and the organizers would love York to continue to take part in future years. Succession planning has already begun! If you are interested in leading York’s involvement next year (25-28th April 2025), please get in touch.
Journal article / This article advocated for greater understanding of barriers to participation in citizen science projects and suggested methods for improving impact.
Project / Investigating if and how hands-on experiences with nature impact values, attitudes and pro-environmental behaviour amongst secondary school students.
Feature / Co-created citizen science empowers communities, reshaping research to reflect their real needs and priorities.
