Considering the growing global biodiversity crisis, citizen science initiatives have emerged as powerful tools for long-term ecological data collection involving non-experts in research. "USM Campus Nature Challenge", a collaborative effort led by the USM Library in partnership with the School of Biological Sciences and the Centre for Global Sustainability Studies, aimed to create awareness about ecological concerns and biodiversity conservation within the university community by documenting biodiversity at USM's main campus. Methodologically, the project organized a 6-week 'bio blitz' event open to citizen scientists to explore the flora and fauna of USM's diverse campus habitats while cataloging species through the iNaturalist app. The results revealed that plant species dominated the observations, constituting 64.9% of recorded biodiversity and reflecting the rich botanical diversity on the USM campus. Further observations included insects (10.4%), fungi (7.6%), birds (6.3%), and various other species, underscoring the complexity of the ecological web of the campus. An evaluation of data quality revealed that 36.6% of the species identifications were categorized as "Research Grade", 47.8% were designated as needing further identification, and 15.7% were graded as "casual". In conclusion, the project leveraged the approach to create more public awareness about local ecological concerns and to strengthen the University community's connection to nature. This USM Library's pilot initiative closely aligns with the Open Science movement related to citizen science in Malaysia.
In: Padfield , R , Hansen , S , Davies , Z G , Ehrensperger , A , Slade , E M , Evers , S , Papargyropoulou , E , Bessou , C , Abdullah , N , Page , S , Ancrenaz , M , Aplin , P , Dzulkafli , S B , Barclay , H , Chellaiah , D , Choudhary , S , Conway , S , Cook , S , Copeland , A , Campos-Arceiz , A , Deere , N J , Drew , S , Gilvear , D , Gray , R , Haller , T , Hood , A S C , Huat , L K , Huynh , N , Kangayatkarasu , N , Koh , L P , Kolandai , S K , Lim , R A H , Yeong , K L , Lucey , J M , Luke , S H , Mitchell , S L , Montefrio , M J , Mullin , K , Nainar , A , Nekaris , K A I , Nijman , V , Nunes , M , Nurhidayu , S , O'Reilly , P , Puan , C L , Ruppert , N , Salim , H , Schouten , G , Tallontire , A , Smith , T E L , Tao , H H , Tham , M H , Varkkey , H , Wadey , J , Yule , C M , Azhar , B , Sayok , A K , Vairappan , C , Bicknell , J E & Struebig , M J 2019 , ' Co-producing a Research Agenda for Sustainable Palm Oil ' , Frontiers in Forests and Global Change , vol. 2 , 13 . https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00013 , https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00013
The rise of palm oil as the world's most consumed vegetable oil has coincided with exponential growth in palm oil research activity. Bibliometric analysis of research outputs reveals a distinct imbalance in the type of research being undertaken, notably a disproportionate focus on biofuel and engineering topics. Recognizing the expansion of oil palm agriculture across the tropics and the increasing awareness of environmental, social, and economic impacts, we seek to reorientate the existing research agenda toward one that addresses the most fundamental and urgent questions defined by the palm oil stakeholder community. Following consultation with 659 stakeholders from 38 countries, including palm oil growers, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and researchers, the highest priority research questions were identified within 13 themes. The resulting 279 questions, including 26 ranked as top priority, reveal a diversity of environmental and social research challenges facing the industry, ranging from the ecological and ecosystem impacts of production, to the livelihoods of plantation workers and smallholder communities. Analysis of the knowledge type produced from these questions underscores a clear need for fundamental science programmes, and studies that involve the consultation of non-academic stakeholders to develop "transformative" solutions to the oil palm sector. Stakeholders were most aligned in their choice of priority questions across the themes of policy and certification related themes, and differed the most in environmental feedback, technology and smallholder related themes. Our recommendations include improved regional academic leadership and coordination, greater engagement with private and public stakeholders in Africa, and Central and South America, and enhanced collaborative efforts with researchers in the major consuming countries of India and China.
The rise of palm oil as the world's most consumed vegetable oil has coincided with exponential growth in palm oil research activity. Bibliometric analysis of research outputs reveals a distinct imbalance in the type of research being undertaken, notably a disproportionate focus on biofuel and engineering topics. Recognizing the expansion of oil palm agriculture across the tropics and the increasing awareness of environmental, social, and economic impacts, we seek to reorientate the existing research agenda toward one that addresses the most fundamental and urgent questions defined by the palm oil stakeholder community. Following consultation with 659 stakeholders from 38 countries, including palm oil growers, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and researchers, the highest priority research questions were identified within 13 themes. The resulting 279 questions, including 26 ranked as top priority, reveal a diversity of environmental and social research challenges facing the industry, ranging from the ecological and ecosystem impacts of production, to the livelihoods of plantation workers and smallholder communities. Analysis of the knowledge type produced from these questions underscores a clear need for fundamental science programmes, and studies that involve the consultation of non-academic stakeholders to develop "transformative" solutions to the oil palm sector. Stakeholders were most aligned in their choice of priority questions across the themes of policy and certification related themes, and differed the most in environmental feedback, technology and smallholder related themes. Our recommendations include improved regional academic leadership and coordination, greater engagement with private and public stakeholders in Africa, and Central and South America, and enhanced collaborative efforts with researchers in the major consuming countries of India and China.
The rise of palm oil as the world's most consumed vegetable oil has coincided with exponential growth in palm oil research activity. Bibliometric analysis of research outputs reveals a distinct imbalance in the type of research being undertaken, notably a disproportionate focus on biofuel and engineering topics. Recognising the expansion of oil palm agriculture across the tropics and the increasing awareness of environmental, social and economic impacts, we seek to re-orient the existing research agenda towards one that addresses the most fundamental and urgent questions defined by the palm oil stakeholder community. Following consultation with 659 stakeholders from 38 countries, including palm oil growers, government agencies, non-governmental organisations and researchers, the highest priority research questions were identified within 13 themes. The resulting 279 questions, including 26 ranked as top priority, reveal a diversity of environmental and social research challenges facing the industry, ranging from the ecological and ecosystem impacts of production, to the livelihoods of plantation workers and smallholder communities. Analysis of the knowledge type produced from these questions underscores a clear need for fundamental science programmes, and studies that involve the consultation of non-academic stakeholders to develop 'transformative' solutions to the oil palm sector. Stakeholders were most aligned in their choice of priority questions across the themes of policy and certification related themes, and differed the most in environmental feedback, technology and smallholder related themes. Our recommendations include improved regional academic leadership and coordination, greater engagement with private and public stakeholders of Africa, and Central and South America, and enhanced collaborative efforts with researchers in the major consuming countries of India and China.
The rise of palm oil as the world's most consumed vegetable oil has coincided with exponential growth in palm oil research activity. Bibliometric analysis of research outputs reveals a distinct imbalance in the type of research being undertaken, notably a disproportionate focus on biofuel and engineering topics. Recognising the expansion of oil palm agriculture across the tropics and the increasing awareness of environmental, social and economic impacts, we seek to re-orient the existing research agenda towards one that addresses the most fundamental and urgent questions defined by the palm oil stakeholder community. Following consultation with 659 stakeholders from 38 countries, including palm oil growers, government agencies, non-governmental organisations and researchers, the highest priority research questions were identified within 13 themes. The resulting 279 questions, including 26 ranked as top priority, reveal a diversity of environmental and social research challenges facing the industry, ranging from the ecological and ecosystem impacts of production, to the livelihoods of plantation workers and smallholder communities. Analysis of the knowledge type produced from these questions underscores a clear need for fundamental science programmes, and studies that involve the consultation of non-academic stakeholders to develop 'transformative' solutions to the oil palm sector. Stakeholders were most aligned in their choice of priority questions across the themes of policy and certification related themes, and differed the most in environmental feedback, technology and smallholder related themes. Our recommendations include improved regional academic leadership and coordination, greater engagement with private and public stakeholders of Africa, and Central and South America, and enhanced collaborative efforts with researchers in the major consuming countries of India and China.
The rise of palm oil as the world's most consumed vegetable oil has coincided with exponential growth in palm oil research activity. Bibliometric analysis of research outputs reveals a distinct imbalance in the type of research being undertaken, notably a disproportionate focus on biofuel and engineering topics. Recognising the expansion of oil palm agriculture across the tropics and the increasing awareness of environmental, social and economic impacts, we seek to re-orient the existing research agenda towards one that addresses the most fundamental and urgent questions defined by the palm oil stakeholder community. Following consultation with 659 stakeholders from 38 countries, including palm oil growers, government agencies, non-governmental organisations and researchers, the highest priority research questions were identified within 13 themes. The resulting 279 questions, including 26 ranked as top priority, reveal a diversity of environmental and social research challenges facing the industry, ranging from the ecological and ecosystem impacts of production, to the livelihoods of plantation workers and smallholder communities. Analysis of the knowledge type produced from these questions underscores a clear need for fundamental science programmes, and studies that involve the consultation of non-academic stakeholders to develop 'transformative' solutions to the oil palm sector. Stakeholders were most aligned in their choice of priority questions across the themes of policy and certification related themes, and differed the most in environmental feedback, technology and smallholder related themes. Our recommendations include improved regional academic leadership and coordination, greater engagement with private and public stakeholders of Africa, and Central and South America, and enhanced collaborative efforts with researchers in the major consuming countries of India and China.
The rise of palm oil as the world's most consumed vegetable oil has coincided with exponential growth in palm oil research activity. Bibliometric analysis of research outputs reveals a distinct imbalance in the type of research being undertaken, notably a disproportionate focus on biofuel and engineering topics. Recognizing the expansion of oil palm agriculture across the tropics and the increasing awareness of environmental, social, and economic impacts, we seek to reorientate the existing research agenda toward one that addresses the most fundamental and urgent questions defined by the palm oil stakeholder community. Following consultation with 659 stakeholders from 38 countries, including palm oil growers, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and researchers, the highest priority research questions were identified within 13 themes. The resulting 279 questions, including 26 ranked as top priority, reveal a diversity of environmental and social research challenges facing the industry, ranging from the ecological and ecosystem impacts of production, to the livelihoods of plantation workers and smallholder communities. Analysis of the knowledge type produced from these questions underscores a clear need for fundamental science programmes, and studies that involve the consultation of non-academic stakeholders to develop "transformative" solutions to the oil palm sector. Stakeholders were most aligned in their choice of priority questions across the themes of policy and certification related themes, and differed the most in environmental feedback, technology and smallholder related themes. Our recommendations include improved regional academic leadership and coordination, greater engagement with private and public stakeholders in Africa, and Central and South America, and enhanced collaborative efforts with researchers in the major consuming countries of India and China.