Conservation efforts, including development investments planning and mitigation, should be commensurate with the immense size of the Amazon Basin. In the case of the Amazon accumulative impacts can be manifested thousands of kilometers downstream from the Andes to the Atlantic and from near Brasília in the heart of Brazil to Belém near the Amazon River mouth.

Ictio is a database and a mobile phone app created to register observations of fish caught in the Amazon basin. It was developed as part of the Citizen Science for the Amazon project, which aims to connect citizens to the collection and sharing of information on the most important Amazonian fish species. Its wider objective is to ensure that information contributes to understanding Amazonian fish migration. This app is available for download on Android mobile phones and does not require an Internet connection to work.

The result will be a migratory fish open database at the Amazon basin scale, put together through the collaboration of local and indigenous populations, individual fishers, management groups, fishing associations, and scientists. The database will also compile historic monitoring data at local scales from existing datasets. With all this information, we will deepen the understanding on migration in priority fish species in the Amazon, with the intention to contribute to sustainable fisheries and to the conservation of priority aquatic ecosystems.

The Citizen Science for the Amazon seeks to understand how fish migrations work in the Amazon and what environmental factors influence them. The citizen science approach allows us to address information gaps for conservation in the Amazon, drastically reduces the cost of collecting this information, and empowers citizens to actively contribute to the sustainable management of fisheries and the conservation of the aquatic ecosystems.

Local populations, especially people who fish, will benefit from access to information to monitor their fishing activities, and be able to improve management of the fisheries and aquatic ecosystems on which they depend. The scientific community can use the data generated to expand existing knowledge about the ecology of fish and Amazonian water systems.

Learn more about the Citizen Science for the Amazon Network

   
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