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Video length: 12 min
VIDEO. During the holidays, these child scientists help protect nature
They are between 8 and 11 years old, and during their vacation, these children observe and take inventory of biodiversity. Immerse yourself in this summer camp like no other.
(Raw.)
They are between 8 and 11 years old, and during their vacation, these children observe and take inventory of biodiversity. Immerse yourself in this summer camp like no other.
Today’s mission for these children: try to find ocellated lizards, a reptile threatened with extinction distributed between Portugal, Spain and the South of France. In this summer camp, the activities have a leisure objective but also a scientific aim. “The children come for a vacation. The first thing is that they have a good vacation. And then, the idea is to introduce them to science through real projects” explains Maxime Roumazeilles, educator and coordinator for Objectif Sciences International (OSI). He adds : “The stay is called, with a play on words, FBI, like Fast Biodiversity Inventory. We noticed that there were places where it was important to have biodiversity inventories. It was a bit with this idea that the stay was created. It was also during the very first stay, nine years ago, that we discovered the ocellated lizard here”.
“The best way to talk about biodiversity is to live it”
The other objective is to offer real immersion to children: “It allows them to find a connection and bring this pedagogy around biodiversity. Because we talk about biodiversity very often, on TV, in newspapers, even in children’s books, but ultimately, there aren’t many people who can really explain what biodiversity is. And I find that the best way to talk about it is to live it. (…) Seeing a bit of all the species that make up the habitat, making young people understand that it is an ecosystem that is important and not just one species. And that’s not easy to understand. It’s interesting to do it concretely, on the ground” indicates Maxime Roumazeilles. An Egyptian vulture, the rarest vulture in France, then passes over the group.
“The data (that we collect) are really used”
“For example, we look for butterflies. We recognize them thanks to guides. We also work a little on raptors, orchids too. (…) We look for places where they often come and then, we put it all on a site” describes Lucas, a boy at summer camp. “Participatory science can really help researchers because we cannot have an enormous sampling capacity just with researchers, because biodiversity is very large, the spaces are very large, and the fact of “going there as a citizen allows you to complement the studies carried out by researchers in the field” says Maxime Roumazeilles. The data sourced by the colony will be “really used” specifies the coordinator for OSI: “We had a video call on Monday with the person responsible for the national action plan and we also met the project manager of the sensitive natural area and we are going to share the data so that the data we collect can be used in the database. of natural space data”.