Lifelong learning as an incentive for citizen engagement in environmental actions

Marine species move with climate change, aquaculture, maritime traffic, litter; some settle down in new colonized areas and their populations grow uncontrolled becoming invasive. Early detection is crucial for preventing... [ view full abstract ]

Marine species move with climate change, aquaculture, maritime traffic, litter; some settle down in new colonized areas and their populations grow uncontrolled becoming invasive. Early detection is crucial for preventing invaders from spreading, but surveillance and monitoring of all marine waters worldwide is a huge task. Recruitment and training of volunteer citizens is therefore a need for local biodiversity conservation. In this study, researchers from Asturias (North Spain) organized public short informative talks about marine bioinvasions and a workshop for introduction to molecular biology (DNA workshop). At the end of these formative activities they were asked to be members of a Network of Coastal Surveillance. Attendants were classified according to their involvement in lifelong learning programs (yes or not) and working status (employed/unemployed/veterans or retired). Results showed differences between veterans and the rest of participants for acquired learning gains. On the other hand, lifelong learners contributed significantly more to the Network recruits. Taken together, these results suggest an added value of lifelong learning for Citizen Science programs.