CAP-2030 Nepal: Biodiversity photographs collected using iNaturalist app in Nepal (Plants)
These folders of photographs contain images of biodiversity captured by adolescent secondary school students in the district of Jumla in the remote mountains of West Nepal during June 2022. The project was part of a CIFF-funded Children in All Policies 2030 (CAP2030) project.
These photographs of plants were categorized into three categories: "Crops or cultivated plants, Trees and Wild plants"
The images were captured on android tablets using iNaturalist, an online app used to collect and share biodiversity data (mainly plants, animals, and fungi) by comparing a photograph of the observation with a digital database. As there was no internet available in the field study location the students were not able to upload their data to the iNaturalist platform to access the full features of the app. Instead, researchers from Kathmandu Living Lab downloaded the photographs directly to enable the research team and students to review and discuss the images. The point of taking the images was to enable Nepalese youth to engage with and identify the biodiversity in their locale and to engender a sense of environmental stewardship. The photographs and the process of gathering them are described in a paper entitled "Citizen science for climate change resilience: engaging adolescents to study climate hazards, biodiversity and nutrition in rural Nepal" submitted to Wellcome Open Research in Feb 2023. The photographic data contributed to Figure 6 of this paper.