Support for Citizen Scientists and Biodiversity Monitoring Infrastructure

That the Parliament recognises the important role that citizen scientists play in monitoring biodiversity and measuring progress towards Scotland’s biodiversity goals and environmental commitments; considers that this is evident in ongoing volunteer efforts to monitor rare species populations, which have enabled individuals to build skills in identification and surveying to support local species monitoring projects; notes that an example of one such project can be found in Orkney and Shetland, where BeeWalk volunteers have carried out regular surveys of local bumblebee species, including the nationally rare Great Yellow and Moss carder bumblebees, to improve understanding of their population health and, in turn, strengthen Scotland's biodiversity evidence base; acknowledges what it believes to be the essential role that NGOs such as the Bumblebee Conservation Trust play in delivering projects like BeeWalk, and in creating and maintaining the networks, expertise, training and coordination that underpin Scotland's wider biodiversity monitoring infrastructure; considers that this infrastructure is crucial to measuring species recovery, tracking progress towards Scotland's environmental targets and providing the evidence needed to assess whether nature restoration efforts are succeeding; recognises the importance of sustaining this capacity for the future, including through continued support for the organisations, volunteers and programmes that underpin it; acknowledges that international biodiversity forums are also essential to advancing this work as they facilitate knowledge sharing and enable states to agree biodiversity frameworks and targets; notes that the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), the UN's biodiversity summit, will take place in Yerevan, Armenia from 19 to 30 October 2026; thanks all citizen scientists and NGOs in Scotland and around the world that are taking forward this crucial work, and recognises their continued efforts to protect ecosystems and the species that call them home.