Senior ecologist Gitte Kragh, NORDECO, is co-author on a new scientific article on using citizen science in restoration of wetlands.
Globally, over 20% of wetlands have been lost in the last three centuries, mainly due to changes in land use. Recently, efforts to restore wetlands have increased significantly. This surge is motivated by the important roles wetlands play in carbon storage, water regulation, disaster prevention, and biodiversity recovery, along with their cultural benefits like recreation and aesthetic value.
Restoration goals are now part of global environmental initiatives, including the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) and the European Nature Restoration Regulation, often supported by significant public funding. However, as restoration projects expand in different locations, a key challenge persists: how do we assess the success of wetland restoration when these ecosystems change slowly, react nonlinearly, and seldom follow predictable paths?
Recent shifts in technology and governance suggest that citizen science is undergoing a quiet transformation. Advances in mobile platforms, low-cost sensors, and data validation methods have greatly expanded what citizen scientists can observe and report. At the same time, international frameworks (e.g., the Sustainable Development Goals and the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework) are increasingly cited in calls to recognize citizen-generated data as a valuable complement to official sources. These changes open new possibilities for applying citizen science to wetland restoration.
Read the full article: Wetlands restoration and Citizen Science 2026
