null The first Ukrainian nationwide mapping of species occurrence by the public

NCA CR

The first Ukrainian nationwide mapping of species occurrence by the public

3. 7. 2025

From 19 May to 8 June 2025, Ukraine held its first nationwide “bioblitz” – mapping the occurrence of plant and animal species in the wild using the iNaturalist app.

The results of this unique citizen science project are impressive: total of 731 active observers took part, over three weeks, with 1,595 validators who assisted with species identification. Together they uploaded 105,000 observations of 5,279 species. This represents 28.4% of all species ever recorded in Ukraine using iNaturalist. The most frequently recorded were plants (36%) and insects (41%). More than 5,000 records of 155 non-native species for Ukraine were also identified.

“These results are truly astonishing. We did not expect to engage so many people to record their observations of nature in the iNaturalist app. At least half of the records (52,000) meet scientific standards and can be used for the conservation of Ukrainian nature. We were also pleasantly surprised by the involvement of people from occupied territories, such as Crimea,” commented Oleksij Vasyliuk from the Ukrainian UNCG, reflecting on the results.

The nationwide bioblitz was organised by the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (UNCG) as part of the LIFE Ukraine project, which is coordinated by the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic. The project aims to prepare the transformation of Ukrainian nature conservation legislation for accession to the European Union, including the implementation of European nature protection directives.

Project name: Conservation of Natural Heritage for Life in Ukraine (101148569 — LIFE23-PRE-CZ-ConNaturLIFE Ukraine — LIFE-2023-PLP)

Ukrainian nationwide “bioblitz” in brief:

  • 731 active observers (i.e., those who uploaded their own observations to iNaturalist),
  • 1,595 validators who assisted with species identification,
  • 105,000 observations, of which 52,500 (almost half!) meet scientific standards. For comparison: this  represents approximately 6% of all observations uploaded to iNaturalist from Ukraine since 2016,
  • 5,279 species, of which 36% are plants and 41% insects; this represents 28.4% of all species recorded in Ukraine using iNaturalist, on average, the community was 11 times more active during these three weeks than during the entire previous period of platform use, or 5.7 times more active than the average during 2024,
  • 5,000 records of 155 non-native species for Ukraine were observed in the wild.

 

        
                      

Map of observations during the nationwide “bioblitz” – 19 May to 8 June 2025, Data Map 2025, Google