Establishment of citizen science and its application to environmental education aiming to conservation of biodiversity with international collaboration

The loss of biodiversity is the most urgent global issue to be solved. Citizen science(SC) is an effective approach to tackle with this issue. SC has contributed in the field of science, environmental education and conservation. The rapid development of information technology during the last decade has opened a new horizon to SC. However, in Japan ,SC has not fully recognized the significance and potential of SC. We define SC as engaging the public in a scientific study. This study aims to review the history of SC in Japan, the USA and the U. K. and describe pioneering case studies of SC in research, education, and conservation by hearing the organizers of the projects. This study established the framework of citizen science and implemented or improved several case studies by emphasizing the importance of control of data quality, evaluation of the program and integral approach of science and human systems in citizen science projects