Collaborative monitoring: ‘citizen science’ attributing new values to people and conservation

Abstract

The existence of protected areas is the main strategy for nature conservation, attractive to ecotourism visitation. Faced with human concentration in cities, the search for idyllic places has gradually increased, whether to contemplate new landscapes or even actively participate in the search and increase of new knowledge through alternative forms of leisure. These characteristics are the motivations for the expansion of birdwatching in Brazil. The participation of society in the search and construction of knowledge has become something necessary due to the complexity of contemporary challenges, and citizen collaboration in projects and programs aimed at quantifying and qualifying biodiversity in protected and conserved spaces cannot be dispensed with. In this paper we will present arguments and data that corroborate this line of think and act, which resulted in the addition of information on the diversity of species in Brazilian protected areas, particularly in the Morro do Diabo State Park, in São Paulo, which in 10 years obtained 70 records. of birds from the practice of bird watching tourism. We conclude that “collaborative monitoring” constitutes an advance for the knowledge of biodiversity from a context of greater participation and inclusion of multiple social actors.