Community Science

Communities Controlling and Directing Research Important to Them

Community Science in the Eastport Fishing Community

Eastport is a fishing community on the rocky shoreline of Bonavista Bay, in Newfoundland (Canada). For generations, Eastport residents have relied on the bay’s marine resources, with the cod fishery playing an especially big role, historically, in the economy. In the early 1990s, the dramatic collapse of the cod fishery led to an increasing reliance on lobster harvests, and that resulted in a decline of lobster catches, threatening community livelihoods.

After witnessing the collapse of the cod fishery, local Eastport fishers knew they needed to ensure sustainability of lobster fishing. They created the Eastport Peninsula Lobster Protection Committee, ensuring the community drove the actions taken concerning the lobster fishery.

Although the community already had significant knowledge of how the lobster behaves in the local waters, they wanted to verify this local knowledge through scientific collaboration. For this reason, they reached out to academic and government scientists, who worked with the community to examine how the lobster population was changing. With this knowledge, and through support of local governments, no-catch zones were set up to safeguard the lobster across all ages – those zones were so successful in helping to maintain livelihoods that the community pushed government to make it ‘official’ through supported establishing a formal marine protected area.

Photo credit: Eastport Peninsula – Marc Allain

What is Community Science?

The Eastport story is an example of community science which, according to Dr. Tony Charles from Saint Mary’s University, involves “local communities, anywhere in the world, controlling and directing the kind of scientific studies done in their local area.” This type of science differs from the more common practice of scientists directing research studies.

Through collaborations with many local communities, Dr. Charles and his co-authors, Laura Loucks, Fikret Berkes, and Derek Armitage, became fascinated with how communities engage in community science, and recently addressed this in a freely-available publication.

Dr. Charles emphasizes that community science can take place everywhere… in neighborhoods of large metropolitan areas, and in small rural towns – anywhere with a strong community spirit. He says that community science can be used to address many concerns within a community, whether social, economic, or environmental. “The important thing is that the local community controls and directs how the research, the scientific activity, takes place.”

Based on their experience working with communities, Dr. Charles and his colleagues observed that typically communities engage in community science in one of three ways: (1) hiring or collaborating with external scientists or research organisations, (2) employing an internal team of researchers to answer community questions, and (3) working with resident scientists, within the community, who volunteer their time and assist in addressing community questions. The main point the authors highlight in their article is “the idea of community empowerment, the community being able to decide on the kind of study, the kind of science they want and control it and direct it”.

Applying Community Science In Your Own Community

If you live in a community that is interested in engaging in community science, Dr. Charles has a few recommendations on how to get started.

First, through discussions, the community identifies the problems they want to address.

Second, the community looks at the knowledge it already has, and what more is needed to address the problems being faced. For example, if local hunters have noticed changes in wildlife populations, the community likely already has a good idea of what could have caused those changes, but may feel it needs more details before taking management action.

Third, if additional scientific or research support is needed, the community identifies suitable expertise, whether inside or outside.

Fourth, the community ensures ways to keep control of the research, so they get the results they need, especially if outside expertise is involved.

Dr. Charles notes that governments can play a supporting role – or not. It is crucial for them to take a community-supporting attitude, and then to help facilitate community science by assisting in the search for experts, and providing the funding needed for the research a community deems necessary.

As in Eastport, where community science supported conservation and helped maintain livelihoods, community science can assist in addressing many problems faced by communities around the world.

Read more about Community Science: “Community science: A typology and its implications for governance of social-ecological systems”