Hello! Welcome back to the Brazil Climate newsletter, brought to you by The Brazilian Report. This week, reporter Isabela Cruz explores the state of citizen science in Brazil, and the important advances it made during 2024.
If you have any questions about this newsletter, or topics you’d like to see covered in future issues, send me an email at [email protected]!
Citizen science brings communities and research together in Brazil
Partnerships with amateurs enable scientists to gather, organize and analyze vast amounts of data. Illustration: ivector/Shutterstock
Amid the torrent of anti-scientific misinformation flooding social media, 2024 also marked significant progress in bridging the gap between science, citizens and technology. Among the year’s milestones was the discovery that the Paviotii horned frog, a species from Brazil’s Atlantic Forest previously considered near extinction, is more numerous than scientists had believed.
This breakthrough was made possible by the contributions of 160 “amateur scientists” in a project by the National Institute of the Atlantic Forest. These citizen scientists submitted records of the elusive frogs via WhatsApp, complete with geotagged locations.
Over four years, professional researchers received more than 900 submissions. Of these, 42 recordings, sent by 10 participants from Santa Teresa, in the state of Espírito Santo, guided fieldwork to capture the frogs’ calls and collect genetic samples. This confirmed the identification of the species, redefining its conservation status.
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