The Mekong Environment Forum (MEF) and Can Tho University jointly held a Citizen Science Symposium on Wednesday, 15 Jan 2020.
The symposium introduced the Mekong Environmental Security Atlas (MESA) – an open data platform promoting data sharing and citizen’s voice on environmental issues. The event brought 32 participants together, including citizen scientists and citizen journalists in the Mekong Delta, and representatives from IUCN (Ho Chi Minh), Kim Delta (Can Tho), Abavina (Can Tho), CEN (Hanoi), O-We Water (Vinh Long), Youth Unions (Can Tho).
At the symposium, Mr. Steven Starsman, Managing Director of Kim Delta who helps develop the MESA tool, introduced the launch of MESA and encouraged citizen scientists and practitioners to contribute datasets and stories to enrich the MESA. The MESA tool was supported by East-West Management Institute through its Open Development Mekong (ODM) and Internews Earth Journalism Network (EJN).
The symposium presented a productive platform for MEF as well as participating partners to introduce their work and network for future collaboration. The participants and practitioners have prioritized activities for strengthening collaboration in Citizen Science and identified actions that the Citizen Science implementers can take to improve science-based data/information generation.
Two citizen science teams whose dataset and media stories reached the highest number of views and shares on the MEF Facebook Page were recognized and awarded the small Citizen Science Awards, supported by ODM.
Visit MESA Tool: https://www.mekongcircular.org/maps-and-database/projects-ideas