A citizen science campaign called ‘Vollenbak natuur bingen’ held a big National Biodiversity Challenge from 18 to 26 May. It asked people to record as many different species of animals and plants as they could in nine days. 12,000 new users and existing Obisdentify users joined and observed more than 6,600 species.
Binging nature
The Agency for Nature and Forests launched the 'Vollenbak natuur bingen' campaign as a part of the European LIFE project 'Belgium for Biodiversity'. This LIFE project brings together 14 partners who work on nature and biodiversity in Belgium, such as Natuurpunt and the Institute for Nature and Forest Research (INBO) in Flanders, Natagora in Wallonia and the Sonian Forest Foundation in Brussels.
The National Biodiversity Challenge got over 10 times the views of other challenges. With 450,000 sightings, the campaign was successful.
Bioblitz
Several Natura 2000 sites, the top nature areas in Europe, took part in a European 'species spotting competition' for Biodiversity Week, where different sites across Europe competed to spot the most species. In Belgium, 16 Natura 2000 sites joined this contest, which is also called a bioblitz. In total, almost 70,000 sightings were recorded in 85 sites throughout Europe. Our country performed very well with a lot of people taking part: eight Belgian Natura 2000 sites made it to the top 20 of the European bioblitzes.
