#1 Marine LitterWatch

Project description

Marine LitterWatch is a citizen science project developed by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) to tackle the problem of marine litter.  

Objective

The main objective of the project is filling data gaps on marine litter for EU marine environmental policy (the Marine Strategy Framework Directive) involving citizens in its collection and monitoring. 

What does it consist of?

To combat the plastic litter problem, communities collect litter from beaches and send data on the items found to the EEA.  

Requirements

• Participants should be familiar with the diversity of marine litter items. Even so, the project applications inform on the typologies of litter items. 

• Digital tools, like and mobile app or access to the website to submit the survey with the observations are recommended 

• Gloves, boots, and bags to collect the litter are recommended. 

Language

English

Place

Global 

Developed by

The European Environment Agency has developed Marine LitterWatch to strengthen Europe’s knowledge base and thus provide support to European policymaking. 

#environmental health

#marine litter 

Inclusivity and accessibility of the tools and materials

• Citizen's involvement

• Equitable use

• Flexibility in use

• Simple and Intuitive Use

• Clear content

• Perceptible Information

• Tolerance for Error

• Low Physical Effort

• Size and Space for Approach and Use

• Social, spatial and economic inclusiveness

• Security and protection of data

How can the project and its related activities contribute to climate action? 

Preserving and enhancing marine resilience, especially for vulnerable habitats, is crucial in combating climate change and human impacts. However, the lack of long-term data often undermines confidence in resilience assessments. Integrating climate change and marine litter into resilience frameworks enables more effective actions to be implemented (Lincoln et al. 2022)

What activities can be conducted within the climate assembly? 

• [Framing or Organization phase] Detecting ongoing citizen science activities within the community by identify organizations, researchers, or communities engaged in relevant actions, such as MLW (Marine Litter Watch), to include them in the regular programme.  

• [Framing or Organization phase] Addressing citizen concerns through the identification of existing citizen science projects, like MLW, to pinpoint areas most impacted by litter, thus addressing community concerns effectively.  

• [Learning Phase] Invite citizen scientist testimonials and deployment of citizen science actions from the project into deliberative democracy processes. It can inspire, empower, engage and foster participation in the assembly while enriching knowledge and experience uptaking in a bottom-up manner.  

• [Learning Phase] Facilitate knowledge sharing through presentations of previous research, citizen science workshops, testimonials, or collective actions, such as litter sampling or data collection during the assembly.  

  • Engaging a core group of (citizen) scientists from MLW to share knowledge and experiences with assembly participants.  

  • Engaging a core group of citizen climate assemblies for performing MLW action to share bottom-up and experiential knowledge with the rest of the assembly participants. 

• [Learning Phase] Offer visual representations of data collected through MLW to enhance understanding and accessibility of citizen science findings and perform an activity around the visuals. 

• [Learning Phase] Integrating citizen science projects into public spaces during climate assemblies. Encourage public institutions like libraries, schools or civic centres to introduce citizen science projects like MLW related to the climate topics discussed in the assembly and incorporate their insights into the assembly.  

• [Recommendations Phase] Utilizing outcomes of citizen science projects for policymaking and expert guidance. Incorporate recommendations from projects like MLW, which are based on evidence collected by citizen scientists, into policy decisions and expert assessments. 

• [Follow-up phase] Establishing citizen observatories to monitor the effectiveness of public measures. Enable citizens to monitor the impact of public measures, such as litter control efforts on coastlines, through citizen observatories previously stablished or created ad-hoc in the last phase of the assembly. 

• [Follow-up phase] Providing updates on policy implementation based on evidence and monitoring changes in litter levels. Inform assembly participants about policy implementation progress and monitor changes in litter levels to assess the effectiveness of implemented measures, particularly in coastal areas.  

Who can use it? 

[Organizers] [Experts] [Civil society] [Citizens] 

Links of interest 

From source to sea – The unfold story of marine litter (EEA)

Outlook and Recommendations (EEA)

Similar projects 

Marina Conservative Society

References 

Lincoln, S., Andrews, B., Birchenough, S. N., Chowdhury, P., Engelhard, G. H., Harrod, O., ... & Townhill, B. L. (2022). Marine litter and climate change: inextricably connected threats to the world's oceans. Science of The Total Environment, 837, 155709.