2022-10-03 |
NCYU Promotes “iNaturalist Taiwan” Observation Platform and Protects Taiwan’s Biodiversity in Step with the World |
The “iNaturalist Taiwan,” an observation platform officially launched today on Oct. 3rd, becomes the newest member of the international iNaturalist Network. National Chiayi University is committed to promoting “iNaturalist,” an international platform for civic science biodiversity observations, and localizing the iNaturalist Taiwan. They hope that everyone can better understand the biodiversity in the living environment via the international platform, and take actions to protect the ecosystem and wild animals and plants. The NCYU Department of Biological Resources has been nurturing students’ understanding of biodiversity, and integrating a love of nature into the environmental education programs. Combined with the “City Nature Challenge” event in Chiayi, they hope to bring the knowledge of natural biology from the classroom to the neighboring counties and cities of Chiayi and Yunlin, so as to achieve the goal of mainstreaming biodiversity.
The iNaturalist platform is one of the world’s largest biodiversity observation websites. Today, the iNaturalist Taiwan becomes the newest member of the iNaturalist Network. Maintained jointly by NCYU and the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI), Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, the network is funded by TFRI, Yushan National Park Headquarters, and National Science and Technology Council. According to Cheng-Tao Lin, Assistant Professor of the Department of Biological Resources and Director of the Biodiversity Research Center at NCYU, iNaturalist has over 1.69 million observations, 38,000 observers and 11,000 Identifiers in Taiwan. The iNaturalist Taiwan platform is an endeavor to combine environmental education with civic science. Its open-data nature allows rapid dissemination of information on biological distribution and phenology. While establishing background information on conservation policies, it is expected to enhance the professional or amateur research capacity.
President Han Chien Lin indicated that NCYU is founded on agricultural studies, and characterized by a professional and educational focus on agriculture and biological resources. The College of Life Sciences offers interdisciplinary programs related to environmental education. The newly-built regional network iNaturalist Taiwan can be incorporated into the environmental education programs, and demonstrate NCYU’s vision to become a green university dedicated to sustainable development. This will serve as the first comprehensive teaching model in Taiwan that integrates civic science and environmental education.
Director Cheng-Tao Lin mentioned that, in addition to the platform, also noteworthy are the environmental education programs and annual event, “City Nature Challenge. “The iNaturalist Taiwan features a public Facebook group, providing another forum for all nature lovers to engage in discussions. It is expected to bring more attention to the wildlife and natural resources of this land. From today onwards, one and all are welcome to participate in the Taiwan BioBlitz Challenge, and explore and discover the biodiversity around you.
Websites of each platform:
iNaturalist:https://iNaturalist.org
iNaturalist Taiwan:https://taiwan.inaturalist.org
iNaturalist Taiwan’s Facebook group:https://facebook.com/groups/iNaturalistTaiwan
|
![到頁面頂端](images/icon009.gif) |
![回上一頁](images/bot10.gif) |
|