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Bürgerwissenschaft oder Citizen Science, die aktive Teilnahme der interessierten Öffentlichkeit an Forschungsprojekten sowohl durch Arten-Expertinnen und -Experten als auch durch Einsteigerinnen und Einsteiger, gewinnt zunehmend an Bedeutung für Biodiversitätsmonitoring und Naturschutz. Diese Entwicklung wird durch die transformativen Wirkungen von Citizen Science in den Bereichen Wissenschaft, Bildung und Partizipation gefördert. Zugleich befeuert auch die rasante Entwicklung digitaler Technologien (z. B. von Smartphones und Apps) die Entstehung neuer biodiversitätsbezogener Citizen-Science-Projekte und Anwendungen. Wir erläutern anhand aktiver Citizen-Science-Projekte und praktischer Anwendungsbeispiele, mit welchen Zielen und in welcher Form digitale Technologien aktuell in Citizen-Science-Projekte eingebunden werden. Dabei betrachten wir zum einen unterschiedliche Meldeplattformen für opportunistische Biodiversitätsbeobachtungen sowie opportunistisch organisierte Citizen-Science-Projekte bzw. Crowdsourcing-Initiativen. Zum anderen stellen wir einige strukturiert arbeitende Citizen-Science-Projekte vor, die digitale Tools für die Datenerhebung und Schulung der Teilnehmenden nutzen. Darüber hinaus diskutieren wir Möglichkeiten, Herausforderungen und Lösungsansätze, die mit Citizen Science, Digitalisierung und Naturschutz im Zusammenhang stehen. Citizen science, the active participation of interested members of the public in research projects by both experts and newcomers, is becoming increasingly important for biodiversity monitoring and conservation. This development is promoted by the transformative effects of citizen science in the fields of science, education and participation. At the same time, the rapid development of digital technologies (e. g. smartphones and apps) is also driving the emergence of new biodiversity-related citizen science projects and applications. Using active citizen science projects and examples of practical applications, we explain the

Citizen scientists play an increasingly important role in biodiversity monitoring. Most of the data, however, are unstructured—collected by diverse methods that are not documented with the data. Insufficient understanding of the data collection processes presents a major barrier to the use of citizen science data in biodiversity research. We developed a questionnaire to ask citizen scientists about their decision-making before, during and after collecting and reporting species observations, using Germany as a case study. We quantified the greatest sources of variability among respondents and assessed whether motivations and experience related to any aspect of data collection. Our questionnaire was answered by almost 900 people, with varying taxonomic foci and expertise. Respondents were most often motivated by improving species knowledge and supporting conservation, but there were no linkages between motivations and data collection methods. By contrast, variables related to experience and knowledge, such as membership of a natural history society, were linked with a greater propensity to conduct planned searches, during which typically all species were reported. Our findings have implications for how citizen science data are analysed in statistical models; highlight the importance of natural history societies and provide pointers to where citizen science projects might be further developed.

Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt grundsätzliche Anforderungen an ein künftiges Monitoringprogramm für Gefäßpflanzenarten in Deutschland auf den existierenden 1 km² großen bundesweit repräsentativen Stichprobenflächen (BRS-Flächen) zusammen. Konsequenzen der ursprünglich angewendeten Stratifizierung für das Erhebungsdesign werden evaluiert und Optionen für eine Beprobung mit permanenten oder nicht-permanenten Teilflächen oder Transekten dargestellt. Darauf aufbauend ergeben sich als Kernempfehlungen, die Beprobung auf Teilflächen durchzuführen und auf eine erneute Stratifizierung innerhalb der Stichprobenflächen zu verzichten. Die Teilflächen sollten permanent angelegt und nicht zu jedem Monitoringtermin erneut zufällig gewählt werden. Wir empfehlen, die Teilflächen als Quadrate und nicht als Transekte anzulegen. Zusätzlich sollten Vegetationsdauerflächen beprobt und Fernerkundungsdaten miteinbezogen werden. Mit einem so angelegten Monitoring wird es möglich sein, für ganz Deutschland repräsentative Aussagen zur Häufigkeit von Gefäßpflanzenarten und zur Veränderung dieser Häufigkeiten über die Zeit zu machen und daraus faktenbasierte Entscheidungsvorschläge für politisches Handeln und für die Naturschutzpraxis abzuleiten.          The article summarises basic requirements for a future monitoring programme for vascular plant species in Germany using the existing nationwide representative network of 1km² sample areas (BRS areas). We evaluate the consequences of the originally applied stratification for the survey design and present options for subsampling with permanent or non-permanent subplots or transects. Based on this, the core recommendations are to carry out sampling on subplots and to dispense with renewed stratification within the sample areas. The subplots should be established permanently and should not be newly selected at random at each monitoring date. We recommend using square

The great cormorant has fully recovered from an endangered status in the 1980s and is now present throughout Europe. Eating fish, this recovery is perceived as a danger by fishermen and anglers. The existing national or regional action or management plans are mostly ineffective due to the high mobility and numbers of the bird. At first sight astonishingly, no such plan exists at the European level. The reasons for this absence, identified through analyzing documents and interviews, are the following: value disagreement, different views on the necessity of such a plan, fear of lost autonomy, different views on species protection, and difficulties of integrating different interests. Steps are proposed how such plan could be achieved, and the final section describes the political development after the first publication of this analysis.

This chapter focuses on the legal and institutional framework that is relevant for the reconciliation of human-wildlife conflicts. The identification of the framework is important, because laws, regulations and norms may impose severe restrictions for reconciliation policies, but also because they open avenues of action. The legal and institutional framework involves governmental levels from local to international as well as different policy sectors from nature conservation and hunting to trade and competition. Relevant governmental levels and policy sectors vary greatly, depending on the conflict and national politico-administrative traditions. Presentation of the framework is organized by using three categories of possible policy instrument types that progress from stringent to least binding measures: “nature conservation regulation”, “economic instruments” and “information and training”.

An overview is given about the history of a conflict-laden relationship between Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra) and humans in Saxony for more than 100 years. The development of the conflict is described in front of the background of otter persecution, population development, social and economical factors as well as legal instruments in four historical time periods with different societal conditions that framed people’s thoughts and actions. The time period from 1990 up to the presence was specifically investigated as part of the FRAP project. Here we made a detailed analysis of the ecological, economic, legal, and institutional as well as social conditions and elaborate the factors that contributed to successful conflict reconciliation.

Protection of the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) has been successful in recent years but is increasingly running into conflict due to the damage caused on the fish stock in ponds aquaculture. In this chapter we compare the conflicts in two regions with a long history of carp farming—Upper Lusatia in Saxony (Germany) and South Bohemia in the Czech Republic, teasing out the factors which amplify or attenuate the conflicts. We show that financial compensation for the damage occurred is insufficient to mitigate the conflict or stop it from becoming worse. To succeed in long term, a set of mitigation measures, both financial and non-financial, should be deployed. These measures perform best when they are spatially differentiated and tailored to the size of farms and farming practices.

One way to mitigate conflicts between species protection and economic damage is population management, i.e. active control of the target species. Any strategy of population control, however, has to meet the constraint that the population stays viable. This chapter presents a framework for modelling and monitoring the viability of populations under active control and for assessing chances and risks of management scenarios already in advance. It accounts for the demographic parameters in the population and the management measure of interest. It highlights that active control is only recommended in cases where population growth rate is above 1.0. Management ought to be adaptive (activity only above a certain threshold) and differentiate between breeders and non-breeders. This requires an appropriate monitoring. Mean age was found to be a useful indicator for population monitoring. The chapter also provides a list of free and commercial software for population viability analysis and monitoring.

Data on the diet of an aquatic top predator are essential to assess the impact of predation on the fisheries resources. Quantitative data are sparse however. Field data is usually collected by analysis of undigested parts in the food remains of scats, pellets, or in stomach and intestine of dead animals. Advanced techniques as fatty acid or stable-isotope analysis makes it possible to assess diet of components not leaving identifiable remains and to look at diet over larger time-scales. A general observation is that aquatic predators tend to be opportunistic in their choice of prey. In the absence of field data the assumption can be made that diet reflects local availability of prey of appropriate size for the predator. To analyse real or perceived resource competition calculation of the amount consumed by the predator should be based on current and methodologically sound data. A simple comparison of the mass or number of a resource species taken by the predator and the fishery respectively can be highly misleading. An analysis should always be made in an ecosystem context, taking size distribution and density dependence into account.

In phase 3, natural and social scientific results from phase 2, modules 2–6 (assessment and analysis of the conflict), are integrated in order to design and implement conflict resolution strategies. Module 9 deals with the evaluation of policy instruments in terms of their effectiveness, their cost-effectiveness, their perception by stakeholders, and their potential for including relevant actors in wildlife decision making. If none or few instruments are present, new policies addressing the human-wildlife conflict need to be developed. Wildlife conflict resolution policies ideally are a policy mix consisting of species conservation and derogation measures, economic instruments, and action directed at civil society.

The basis and first step of an efficient conflict reconciliation and management is a proper screening study. Screening aims at yielding the best picture achievable through collecting existing information on key aspects without going deeply into own investigations. The outcome of the screening phase provides information on how to proceed with, where to focus on, and how much effort to spend on which aspect. This chapter provides checklists of different questions concerning the history, the current scale, ecology, damage, legal, social and economic aspects of the issue, as well as possible ways out of the conflict. The screening analysis indicates whether further steps should be taken along a minimum, a standard or an advanced approach. Already this first phase of a conflict management should be carried out by a knowledgeable person (conflict manager), who is accepted by all stakeholders who might have a crucial impact on conflict reconciliation.

Conflicts arising from the competition of humans and wildlife for biological resources are as old as humankind. Changes in civil society’s attitudes towards wildlife and the success of conservation management have resulted in wildlife prospering again and returning to areas from where they had disappeared and even spreading to new habitats. This is reigniting old conflicts between humans and wildlife.

Human-wildlife conflicts are necessarily linked to stakeholders. Resolving these conflicts requires multilateral interaction. Participatory developed decisions promise to have a better information base, include all actors with relevant knowledge and implementation power, be based on mutual trust and understanding and, finally, reduce overall costs. This chapter gives some general guidelines on what to consider for participatory processes in human-wildlife conflicts in order to live up to some of these promises. While the minimum approach consists of characterizing the conflict and of informing the stakeholders, the advanced approach eventually consists of employing a fully fledged participatory method.

The shared use of natural resources by humans and wildlife is the basis of long-lasting conflicts whose reconciliation is an urgent need. To fully understand the degree of damage and the conflict intensity, detailed knowledge is required on the distribution and abundance of animals and thus their visiting rate and contact with vulnerable resources, which in turn vary spatially depending on habitat characteristics and regional resolution instruments. The purpose of this module is to assess how landscape factors and resource management factors influence wildlife abundance and the exposure and vulnerability of the resource to wildlife. Abundance estimates and species-habitat associations are the two key factors in this context. Three approaches are presented (minimum, standard and advanced), varying in time and funding needs, and these range from literature-based educated guesses to powerful predictors using field-survey datasets, as described. We suggest as a first step the standard approach and only if evidences support a strong influence of landscape factors select an advanced approach in a later step of the reconciliation process.

Wildlife captures the imagination of humans. The image of wildlife and human-wildlife conflicts differs among people. Therefore, it is essential in a book that addresses human-wildlife conflicts to first clarify what we understand by “wildlife” and “human-wildlife conflicts”. In the broadest sense, all wild, undomesticated animals and plants belong to wildlife but most frequently the term refers to medium to large-sized terrestrial vertebrates that are hunted by humans as a resource, trophy, or because they compete with humans for food or space. This is particularly the case when talking about human-wildlife conflicts and we use the word wildlife in this sense throughout this book.

This chapter describes the module Regional Economics and Policy Analysis of the FRAP framework. This analysis aims to derive an understanding of the regional socio-economic context underlying a particular conflict between biodiversity conservation and economic activities and to study the role of policy instruments, which are in place (or were used before) to deal with the conflict. This information is critical to understand the conflict in the study area, as well as the reasons for the success or failure of the adopted policies. Lessons derived at this stage are fundamental for the development of new policy instruments, or for the improvement of existing instruments. The chapter identifies the main issues that should be addressed in the regional economics and policy analysis, presenting guidelines and methods that may be used for the different tasks. The approaches to be used at three different levels of analysis—minimum, standard and advance—are summarized in the end of the chapter.