In the Basque Country, many volunteers altruistically collect data on the presence/absence of species of flora and fauna in nature. However, sometimes this effort does not have the desired impact because it is not linked to specific conservation objectives: there are more observations in the most comfortable or accessible places, on days with better weather conditions or on vacations and weekends, and of species that are easier to see or more emblematic. This leads to a lack of key data for decision making in more inaccessible or remote places or for species with nocturnal habits, less attractive or more difficult to identify or locate.
The Guide is a tool to help define monitoring programs as the collection and analysis of repeated observations or measurements to assess changes in the conservation status of species, and progress towards achieving established conservation and management objectives.
The Guide provides criteria so that data collection is more efficient, the quality of the information is guaranteed and information from different sources can be used in an integrated manner.
The data collected by volunteers can then be used to complement the data collected by the rest of the stakeholder so that the knowledge of the natural heritage of the Basque Country is as complete as possible.
The integration of all the data is only possible with the use of the same criteria and objectives, in a collaborative framework in which each contribution is important.
