Cultural Diversity Issues in Biodiversity Monitoring—Cases of Lithuania, Poland and Denmark
Public participation is a key element in nature conservation in Europe and a necessity for collecting broad scale data on biodiversity and its dynamics. However, vast societal differences exist between eastern and western European countries, resulting in problems for public participation in post-com...
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doaj-2d7667854923411a9b44f42856996b892020-11-24T23:26:34ZengMDPI AGDiversity1424-28182010-09-01291130114510.3390/d2091130Cultural Diversity Issues in Biodiversity Monitoring—Cases of Lithuania, Poland and DenmarkMałgorzata Grodzińska-JurczakHanna KobierskaDirk S. SchmellerDeivida VandzinskaitePublic participation is a key element in nature conservation in Europe and a necessity for collecting broad scale data on biodiversity and its dynamics. However, vast societal differences exist between eastern and western European countries, resulting in problems for public participation in post-communist states as compared to western countries. Here, we compare diversity in monitoring practices and public participation in countries with different political histories. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic studies conducted in Lithuania and Poland, as well as a rapid assessment in Denmark, we have focused on the historical, cultural and social determinants of the volunteers’ participation in biodiversity monitoring. Our results indicate the reasons why volunteer involvement—as an expression of a participatory approach—has a lower incidence in the post-communist countries, compared to voluntarism common in occidental democracies. We discuss our results in the context of the main social factors considered to be a legacy of the Soviet regime. http://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/2/9/1130/amateursbiodiversity monitoringcommunist legacyhuman dimensioncultural diversitypublic participatoryvolunteers |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Małgorzata Grodzińska-Jurczak Hanna Kobierska Dirk S. Schmeller Deivida Vandzinskaite |
spellingShingle |
Małgorzata Grodzińska-Jurczak Hanna Kobierska Dirk S. Schmeller Deivida Vandzinskaite Cultural Diversity Issues in Biodiversity Monitoring—Cases of Lithuania, Poland and Denmark Diversity amateurs biodiversity monitoring communist legacy human dimension cultural diversity public participatory volunteers |
author_facet |
Małgorzata Grodzińska-Jurczak Hanna Kobierska Dirk S. Schmeller Deivida Vandzinskaite |
author_sort |
Małgorzata Grodzińska-Jurczak |
title |
Cultural Diversity Issues in Biodiversity Monitoring—Cases of Lithuania, Poland and Denmark |
title_short |
Cultural Diversity Issues in Biodiversity Monitoring—Cases of Lithuania, Poland and Denmark |
title_full |
Cultural Diversity Issues in Biodiversity Monitoring—Cases of Lithuania, Poland and Denmark |
title_fullStr |
Cultural Diversity Issues in Biodiversity Monitoring—Cases of Lithuania, Poland and Denmark |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cultural Diversity Issues in Biodiversity Monitoring—Cases of Lithuania, Poland and Denmark |
title_sort |
cultural diversity issues in biodiversity monitoring—cases of lithuania, poland and denmark |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Diversity |
issn |
1424-2818 |
publishDate |
2010-09-01 |
description |
Public participation is a key element in nature conservation in Europe and a necessity for collecting broad scale data on biodiversity and its dynamics. However, vast societal differences exist between eastern and western European countries, resulting in problems for public participation in post-communist states as compared to western countries. Here, we compare diversity in monitoring practices and public participation in countries with different political histories. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic studies conducted in Lithuania and Poland, as well as a rapid assessment in Denmark, we have focused on the historical, cultural and social determinants of the volunteers’ participation in biodiversity monitoring. Our results indicate the reasons why volunteer involvement—as an expression of a participatory approach—has a lower incidence in the post-communist countries, compared to voluntarism common in occidental democracies. We discuss our results in the context of the main social factors considered to be a legacy of the Soviet regime. |
topic |
amateurs biodiversity monitoring communist legacy human dimension cultural diversity public participatory volunteers |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/2/9/1130/ |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT małgorzatagrodzinskajurczak culturaldiversityissuesinbiodiversitymonitoringcasesoflithuaniapolandanddenmark AT hannakobierska culturaldiversityissuesinbiodiversitymonitoringcasesoflithuaniapolandanddenmark AT dirksschmeller culturaldiversityissuesinbiodiversitymonitoringcasesoflithuaniapolandanddenmark AT deividavandzinskaite culturaldiversityissuesinbiodiversitymonitoringcasesoflithuaniapolandanddenmark |
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