WAIDHOFEN / YBBS. From April 30th to May 3rd, 2021 Waidhofen will take part in the City Nature Challenge and all Waidhofen residents and visitors are invited to take part in order to document the variety of animals, plants and fungi.
The urban habitat is full of wild animals and plants. The City Nature Challenge (CNC), which takes place every spring, is dedicated to this habitat and investigates the biodiversity in cities around the world with the participation of the local population. This is also the case in Waidhofen. Everyone can take part!
Waidhofen there for the first time
From April 30 to May 3, 2021, the City Nature Challenge will also take place in Waidhofen – for the first time. During this period, the population can document the wild nature within the city of Waidhofen with photos and share their observations online on the “iNaturalist” nature observation platform. Simply register for free on the platform and upload photos of animals and plants. All wild animals, plants and mushrooms are of interest. Together with volunteers around the world, the observations will then be determined from May 4th to 9th. The results of the competition will be announced on May 10th.
First international challenge 2016
The City Nature Challenge has been around since 2016 and is organized internationally by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences. Austria has been participating in this event since 2020. This year ten regions from Austria are taking part in this international competition, four of them from Lower Austria. In addition to the federal capital Vienna and the provincial capitals Graz, Klagenfurt, Linz and St. Pölten, two national parks (Thayatal National Park, Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park) as well as the Mondsee-Irrsee region, the city of Krems together with the Wachau and Waidhofen an der Ybbs are represented .
815,000 observations in the previous year
Despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, 244 cities / regions worldwide took part in the City Nature Challenge in 2020. 815,000 observations of 32,000 different species were reported by 41,000 participants. An important goal of the City Nature Challenge is to get the population excited again for nature in their surroundings. In addition, knowledge about the biodiversity in the region is strengthened. The City Nature Challenge for Waidhofen is organized by Tanja Lumetsberger from Danube University Krems in cooperation with the city of Waidhofen an der Ybbs. Further information can be found on www.biodiversityaustria.at/service/cnc2021/.
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