CITIPOL

Inspiration

In Luxembourg, the monitoring of wild pollinators began in 2010 with the establishment of the “Luxembourg Butterfly Monitoring Scheme” (LUBMS). This was supplemented in 2019 by the  for the monitoring of other wild pollinators, in particular, wild bees, bumblebees and hoverflies.

Together, the LUBMS and MONIPOL constitute the “Luxembourg Pollinator Monitoring Scheme” (LUPoMS), coordinated by LIST. This programme is mainly carried out by professionals but has been attracting more and more interest from the general public. In recent years, a number of citizens have demonstrated their desire to participate in the program by voluntarily collecting observations in the field, following the LUPoMS methodology.

Therefore, it was considered necessary to better support the volunteers and further develop the citizen science component of the LUPoMS program, and a project was then created to nurture their interest, train them and encourage them to contribute sustainably to the monitoring program.

Innovation

Funded by the “Pollinisateurs 2023” call of the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity, the CITIPOL project aims to integrate a citizen science system into the LUPoMS program.

The CITIPOL project plans not only to enable citizen volunteers to identify and monitor pollinating insects through theoretical and practical training activities, but also to involve them in the citizen science system by supporting them individually in all practical aspects related to the collection of observations in the field and the encoding of data, until they can participate in the LUPoMS programme completely autonomously. Finally, the project aims tomaintain the commitment and motivation of the volunteers in the LUPoMS program via educational and social activities based on the results of this program.

Impact

The benefits of citizen science and the extensive networks of volunteer collaborators have been clearly demonstrated in other regions of Europe for various taxa. Involving citizen volunteers in the monitoring program will contribute to improving the geographical coverage of the data collected and the robustness of the sampling necessary to reliably estimate the population trends of pollinators over the long term and across the country. Additionally, it will raise citizens’ awareness and encourage them to reconnect with nature while developing their knowledge. Citizens who participate in the LUPoMS programme will be trained in the identification and surveillance of pollinators and made aware of conservation efforts. They will also be informed regularly about the results generated thanks to their participation in this program.

Are you interested in joining the LUPoMS program as a volunteer? Do you want more information on CITIPOL or LUPoMS? Contact us.