1) What is the One Million Voices citizen science initiative?
The One Million Voices citizen science initiative is a project implemented by the Agroecology TPP in collaboration with partners from the Agroecology Map, Asian Farmers Association (AFA), Groundswell International, the facilitator of the McKnight Andes Community of Practice, and knowledge partners from ETH Citizen Science Centre Zurich.
The initiative’s goal is to develop a tool, or a series of tools, that enable farmers, producer organizations, consumers and other potential end users around the world to
inclusively participate in agroecology movements,
support sustainable adoption of agroecology,
contribute to the collection, co-creation and sharing of information to fill key knowledge gaps on the performance of agroecology.
The initiative is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
2) What is the One Million Voices of Agroecology platform?
Building on a global co-creation process, and informed by a global review of citizen science initiatives, the One Million Voices team with support from Agroecology Map developed this digital citizen science platform that combines several main features:
Map a location where you practice agroecology.
Register one or several practices, both on- and off-farm, that you practice in that location.
Characterize your practice.
Evaluate the performance of your practice against different key interests and priorities.
Acknowledge and share your knowledge sources.
Connect with other users by browsing or filtering their entries and comment, exchange, mobilize and organize.
Importantly, the One Million Voices of Agroecology platform:
Uses digital tools to allow global participation.
Supports the use of different languages.
Works with regional networks to support accessibility and fair participation for their constituencies.
Allows users to share as little or much as they desire (few mandatory fields, many optional questions).
Aims to foster co-learning and exchange while collecting and showcasing innovative ways of realizing agroecology in different contexts.
Hosts the data under a Creative Commons license.
3) How is using the platform beneficial to me and other users?
The human-centred design of the platform aims to benefit users in various ways:
Share and show your experiences with other users.
Find others who do agroecology in your surroundings for exchange and collaboration.
See what others do around the world – in general, or by filtering the data in line with your specific interests (for example location, type of farming system, agroecological principles, system components etc.).
Learn from others’ experiences and their personal evaluation of the performance and contextual suitability of their practices.
Comment and ask other users questions about their locations and practices.
Access knowledge products such as manuals and guidance documents.
Learn more about agroecology and its different aspects and dimensions.
Be part of a growing community striving for positive change in food systems.
Get in touch with the Agroecology TPP and Agroecology Map researchers.
4) What happens to our data?
The personal information you provide to the platform (name, email address) only serves to verify your account during the account registration process and will not be disclosed to third parties.
The non-personal data you share (location, practices), on the other hand, is open access and is treated under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
5) Related media:
One Million Voices project website
Launch of a new citizen science campaign to support global transition to agroecology (September 2021).
Discussing the role of citizen science in agroecology (April 2022).
One Million Voices status update presented at the Agroecology TPP Members’ Forum (February 2023).