How to submit your species observations

 

The effective management of harmful invasive alien species relies on observations made by citizen scientists like you. Did you observe a plant or animal you think could be an invasive alien species? You can share it with us in two ways:

 

  1. Record your observation via waarnemingen.be (Flanders and Brussels, Natuurpunt), observations.be (Wallonia and Brussels, Natagora) or their mobile apps ObsIdentify (App Store, Play Store), ObsMapp and iObs.
  2. Record your observation via iNaturalist.org or their app (App Store, Play Store), managed by the California Academy of Sciences.

 

Both platforms are free, but require an account to record observations. By default, the platforms assign a restrictive license to your observations, meaning they will not be shared and cannot be used by others without your explicit permission. To allow others (including LIFE RIPARIAS) to use your observations freely, you need to assign an open license to your observations. You can do so for all your observations at once in your account settings: see the instructions per platform below.

 

Open licensed observations are shared by both platforms through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an international platform for free and open biodiversity data. LIFE RIPARIAS and many others use data shared through GBIF for science and conservation.

waarnemingen.be/observations.be

Please follow the following steps:

1. Go to waarnemingen.be/observations.be (you cannot make these changes via the app)

2. Log in

3. Click on your name  and select Settings

4. Select “Share data“ tab

5. Select "share my observations as open data" or alternatively "share my observations with trusted projects and partners"

6. Select licenses CC0 or CC-BY from the drop-down list for both photos and sounds

7. Click on the Save button

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iNaturalist

Please follow the following steps:

1. Go to inaturalist.org (you cannot make these changes via the app)

2. Log in

3. Select the Profile tab

4. Click on Edit account settings & manage profile button

5. Click on Content & display

6. Select one of these two licenses: “No Copyright (CC0)” or “Attribution (CC BY)” for observation, photo and sound licenses.

7. Check the boxes “Update existing observations/photos/sounds with new license choices” to apply the selected license retroactively

8. Click the SAVE SETTINGS button

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