With the support of the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) of the People’s Republic of China, Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences affiliated to MEP has organized approximately 3500 trained biologists, protected area managers and volunteer citizen scientists from over 400 universities, research institutes, conservation agencies and civil societies to get involved in field monitoring of biodiversity since 2011, to get insight into the changes of biodiversity, evaluate the effectiveness of management and facilitate the formulation of environmental protection policies. To enhance the sustainability of China BON, we couple trained biologists with volunteer citizen scientists. At least one professional biologist is included in each monitoring team while well trained volunteers are also involved to extend limited staff and budgets for the long-term monitoring goal. Currently, the biological taxa for monitoring include birds, amphibians, mammals, and butterflies, and 441 sample regions have been established with 9000 line transects and point transects.
Main raw data are systematically collected, including the name of species, location and number of individuals, type and vegetation of habitats, weather condition, and categories (infra-structure development, resources exploitation, pollution, hunting, tourism, agriculture, husbandry and fishery, etc.) and extent (strong, moderate, low or non) of anthropogenic disturbance. The corresponding Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) that can be generated by the monitoring network encompass abundance and distribution, taxonomic diversity, habitat structure and quality, and phenology. Thus, the monitoring network can notably contribute to mapping of EBVs at the global level.
Learn more about national Biodiversity Observation Networks in our map viewer.