On September 24, more than fifty people from eleven countries – Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Spain, Portugal, Ecuador, Uruguay – shared their initiatives and discussed knowledge management, data, biodiversity and technology, pandemics, climate crisis, democratization of knowledge and respect for communities, among many other topics. It was the first meeting of partner organizations of RICAP, the Ibero-American Network of Participatory Science. From Bioleft we participated and learned from very diverse experiences.
After a brief presentation, the general meeting was divided into rooms organized around the following axes: knowledge management, biodiversity, technology, communication and education, and use of data at scale. The discussion lasted 45 minutes, and each participant presented the initiative he or she represented. Towards the end, the participants returned to the general room for a debriefing, which was, like the entire meeting, spoken in Portuguese. The rooms and the people who participated in them can be seen in this mural.
Some of the initiatives presented are the Brazilian Citizen Science Network, the Citizen Science Network for the Amazon (with members from Peru, Ecuador and Brazil), the IberCivis Foundation (Spain), the Portuguese Citizen Science Network, Save the Frogs! (Argentina), Fundación Ciencia Ciudadana (Chile), Proyecto Vaquitas (Argentina), the CoAct-Riachuelo initiative (Argentina), Observa Residuos (Argentina), JULANA Biodiversidata (Uruguay), as well as Bioleft. The importance of sharing experiences and learning on the road to open and democratize not only the access to knowledge, but also the generation of knowledge itself was highlighted. It was a joy and an honor to join and exchange ideas with so many inspiring people, thank you very much and keep building the network!