This webinar will introduce the Citizen Science Association’s new Law and Policy Working Group, and highlight some of the group’s goals and projects. While the practical applications of citizen science have traditionally focused on advancing scientific research, raising awareness, and educating communities, today citizen science is increasingly used to influence management and regulatory decisions as well as legal enforcement. The Law and Policy Working Group was established to focus efforts on understanding and disseminating information relating to the law and policy outcomes of citizen science.
In particular, with this webinar, the working group is announcing the first of its initiatives: the creation of a tool through which the citizen scientist community can submit questions about relevant laws and policies raised by citizen science projects. The Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School has volunteered to make its students available to answer such questions.
This webinar is relevant to people interested in the use of citizen science to inform law or policy, as well as citizen scientists who have encountered legal or policy issues in their work. It will introduce them to a new group through which research into these issues can be coordinated and to a new tool to help them with their questions.
This webinar will feature working group co-chairs George Wyeth (Environmental Law Institute) and Shaun Goho (Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School) and will be moderated by Dr. Lea Shanley (Nelson Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison) a who serves on the group's steering committee. This is webinar is the first in a series of webinars focused on the legal and policy issues of citizen science.