Avaliação do uso de plataformas colaborativas no estudo de registros ornitológicos do território mineiro

Abstract

Citizen Science (CC) through digital platforms represents a great contribution to scientific knowledge and environmental conservation based on public involvement, especially concerning birdlife. To evaluate how collaborative platforms have been used to represent birdlife in the state of Minas Gerais, the initiatives most used by birdwatchers, WikiAves, eBird, iNaturalist and Táxeus, were analyzed regarding the records shared until the end of 2021 with localization in Minas Gerais territory. We performed descriptive and inferential analyzes to describe the results and verify the possible relationships of dependence and correlation between the Minas regions, their economic, population and social characteristics with the amount of data available by municipality and region. It was noted that the territories, both municipal and regional, exhibited heterogeneous results, with an accumulation of shares for some areas, such as more populous cities and regions or with greater incentives for birdwatching, as in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, while in others there was an underrepresentation, as was the case of the mesoregions belonging to the North of the state. The potential of Citizen Science initiatives to extend the knowledge of birdlife in Minas Gerais state was verified, although greater adherence is still needed on a better distributed scale. Finally, we discussed the different approaches that can influence the increase of representativeness, such as events to stimulate birdwatching and the use of collaborative platforms, great allies in the conservation of biodiversity.