COP17 Yerevan: Next-Gen Citizen Science
Showcasing inclusive wins, empowering the Global South and charting the future of environmental data
ForestSync and Carbonomex, the Norwegian startup representing Norway at COP17, the UN Biodiversity Conference in Yerevan, took the stage at the side event Next-Gen Citizen Science on 27 October 2026: Giulia Marzetti, of Carbonomex and Fondazione Sorella Natura and an EU Climate Pact Ambassador, spoke alongside Austin Mast (Citizen Science Global Partnership, Florida State University), Martin Brocklehurst (EU Climate Pact Ambassador), Garabet Kazanjian (American University of Armenia), Fatima El-aaraby (CBD Women's Caucus) and Pablo López Guijosa (Urban Biodiversity Hub), with Ram Dayal Vaishnav and Anukriti Sharma facilitating. About half of the 365 indicators of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework could use citizen-collected data, yet that data rarely reaches national monitoring. The session showed what citizen science already delivers for conservation, how communities in the Global South fill data gaps with low-cost tools, how women, youth and Indigenous Peoples widen the legitimacy of monitoring, and the path from community observations to national reporting. For ForestSync the link is direct: community monitoring and supply-chain transparency are forest monitoring and MRV, and a credit for nature is only as good as the record behind it.
What We Covered
- •Citizen data for conservation outcomes and protected areas
- •Community monitoring and low-cost tools in the Global South
- •Inclusive monitoring: women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and local communities
- •From community observations to national reporting under the KM-GBF
- •Digital tools, AI and supply-chain transparency
Resources
Event Gallery
