Extending New Zealand’s natural history foundations with NatureWatch NZ

Abstract

The natural world is changing in response to human activities that alter New Zealand environments. Yet, we know worryingly little about most of these changes, particularly gradual changes. More generally, there is still much basic natural history to uncover about New Zealand species. And yet most New Zealanders are largely disconnected from the wild species and natural processes around them. For these reasons, we set up the NZ Bio-Recording Network back in 2005. NZBRN began by adapting the Swedish Artportalen nature-observation website to NZ requirements. Through it, we amassed about 400,000 observations of animals, plants, and fungi, including historical data, made by thousands of users from across the country. In August 2012, we launched NatureWatch NZ, a completely new nature observation web and mobile application that is replacing our legacy system. NatureWatch NZ makes several important advances which we hope will support a wider community, young and old, engaged in observing, recording and monitoring the natural environment. These new features include the ability to record any species anywhere, upload photos, comment on and identify other people's observations, flag observations as "ID Please", make and share Projects and Places, and use online and offline functional mobile apps (for iOS and, soon, Android). NatureWatch NZ provides a central service to crowd- source NZ natural history knowledge (of all species, indigenous and introduced, wild and cultivated) and has much to offer ecological research, community-based monitoring and agencies involved in managing New Zealand’s natural environments.