iNaturalist x City Nature Challenge 2022
Coming together with over 400 cities, Hong Kong will be participating in the international City Nature Challenge 2022 organised by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences. Participants [in countries] will be competing to see which city can find the most observations, explore the most species and involve the most observers, whilst still striving for the common goal of increasing our awareness of our environment.
The multi-city competition will take place from 29 April to 2 May, following with the results announced on 9 May. For the next few days, everyone in the Island School community – families, teachers, staff, and students can take part in this challenge. You can take photographs of any kinds of biodiversity you may encounter that are live and wild, such as flowers, trees, fungi, insects, reptiles, fish, birds, mammals, etc, anywhere in Hong Kong. (However, please keep in mind that humans will not be accounted for.) Afterwards, you can upload and share your findings on the iNaturalist app. Please make sure you log your iNaturalist username on this google form once you have registered for an account or your data will not be added to the iNaturalist Island School Platform.
From previous results of the findings in Hong Kong, 17,137 observations were made with 3,007 species identified in 2020 and 29,781 observations, and 4,179 species identified in 2021. This statistic has already shown how much more of nature has still been undiscovered. Knowing so, we should discover and learn more about nature in urban areas around Hong Kong, whilst understanding what we can do to take care of it.
By getting ourselves involved in this challenge, we can also assist scientists and land managers in studying and protecting a wide range of species. We can simply do so by heading outside and documenting the environment by taking photos of nature on our phones, not only can this allow everyone to acknowledge nature, but how much it contributes to our lives.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to your campus leaders:
Sha Tin Wai: chanan.ng@online.island.edu.hk or ady.lam@online.island.edu.hk
Tai Wai: katrina.hon@online.island.edu.hk or alexandra.lai@online.island.edu.hk
You can also follow our Instagram page @iswanbo to be notified!
Article by Kelly Leung (10D), WANBO Newsletter team
