The Center for the Environment, in cooperation with colleagues from the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage, began work in 2023 on establishing the first species monitoring programs for the Republic of Srpska. The program was developed during 2024, and the first field activities involving data collection and the establishment of monitoring began at the start of this year.
The collection of species data is extremely important for the scientific community, as it enables the tracking of trends and the status of populations of particular species. Unfortunately, the number of researchers in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not large, so the amount of data currently available is very limited. For this reason, involving the wider public in data collection is crucial, as this not only contributes to a better understanding of species, but also raises public awareness of the need for nature conservation. On the other hand, citizens can contribute by promoting science and gaining new knowledge about the nature that surrounds us.
We wanted to put all of the above into practice, so at the beginning of this year we launched a citizen science campaign intended to provide basic support and guidance to citizens, enabling them to contribute to a better understanding of species and habitats in our country. The first species we selected was the stag beetle—a species that is easy to recognize and has protected status on both national and international lists.
During the campaign to collect data on the presence of the stag beetle, we managed to obtain around 80 records for the territory of the Republic of Srpska alone, including as many as 27 new localities for which we previously had no data.
The visual representation of the stag beetle’s distribution before the campaign and after the first year of the campaign speaks for itself:
.
We would like to thank all citizens who contributed to filling in the gaps, especially our youngest campaign participants, whose creativity enriched the campaign and through whom we received interesting photographs of the stag beetle throughout the year. We also prepared modest prizes for the best contributions.
Next year, from March to September, we will continue collecting data on the stag beetle, and we would like to take this opportunity to invite you to take a walk in a nearby park, garden, or forest, photograph a stag beetle, and send us its coordinates.
All information about data collection can be found on our website on this link.