In Janakkala, invasive alien species are being tackled using a mobile game
In Janakkala this coming summer you can earn rewards by removing harmful Himalayan balsam and lupin using the Crowdsorsa mobile game. Anyone can take part in the control work by downloading the app to their own smartphone and heading out into nature. A total of 2,000€ in rewards is being distributed to participants in the game.
Janakkala’s crowdsourced invasive alien species control starts on June 8. Invasive alien species are plants and animals that spread to new areas with human help and displace native species. Harmful invasive species weaken biodiversity and can cause significant costs in environmental management.
The Crowdsorsa invasive species game offers citizens the chance to participate in concrete volunteer work for their local nature and to receive rewards for the work done.
This growing season the species targeted for control in Janakkala are Himalayan balsam and lupin. In particular, pulling up Himalayan balsam is being encouraged this year with higher-than-usual rewards. The task is started well before the plants go to seed so that control is as effective as possible.
Engaging residents has been a central part of Janakkala municipality’s strategy for years. The Crowdsorsa app helps gamify invasive species control, which can activate and inspire especially young residents to remove invasive species, says environmental planner Juulia Juslin from Janakkala municipality.
How the control works
The player searches for invasive plants on the app’s map game area. Especially in early summer, at the start of the growing season, identifying plants by their leaves is important because the colorful flowers appear only later in the summer.
When they find a suitable occurrence the player videos the area by walking around it. After removing all the invasive plants in the occurrence they walk the same area again and video the result of their work. A red plant icon appears on the map to mark the newly cleared area.
An area that has already been cleared can be retreated as soon as the plant icon marking the occurrence on the game map has changed from red to green. This happens about two weeks after the first control.
The videos must be uploaded to Crowdsorsa for quality control within three days (72h). After that, videos that have not been uploaded are automatically rejected. Rewards are paid for accepted submissions, which can be requested from the app to the user’s bank account.
– Last year, participants in invasive species tasks, about one third of whom were young people, cleared invasive species from over 2.8 million square meters in Finland. That is an incredible achievement. I believe that this summer we can reach a new record again, says Crowdsorsa’s managing director Toni Paju.
Updated app makes control even more effective
The Crowdsorsa mobile game has been developed to be more user-friendly based on feedback from players as well as municipalities and cities.
For example, carrying out retreatment of plants has been simplified: when 50 percent of the reward budget has been used, the game area is restricted to cover only sites that have already been cleared. At this stage new sites can no longer be marked on the map. Retreatment ensures that invasive species are eliminated from areas as accurately as possible.
Instructions have been improved visually, and clear image cards will be introduced. In addition, every task includes a short test questionnaire to ensure that species identification and the basic principles of control are clear to the user. The test questionnaire can be completed as soon as the local task is published in the app.
A total of 2,000€ in rewards
This summer in Janakkala there is a total of 2,000€ in rewards for participants. Players can earn up to 20€ per hour. The size of the reward is determined automatically based on the occurrence’s area, density and species.
The game runs until the end of August or as long as the local reward budget lasts, and the progress of the control can be followed in the app.
Harmful invasive species that threaten biodiversity are being controlled this summer with Crowdsorsa in more than 80 municipalities and towns in Finland. The game is also in use in Sweden and Canada.
WHAT IS CROWDSORSA?
Crowdsorsa is an internationally awarded, Tampere-based startup whose mobile game has been used for environmental purposes in seven countries: Finland, Sweden, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Malaysia.
The game has been developed for the crowdsourced collection of image and video data. Participants receive rewards while playing and at the same time help improve the environment.
In addition to combating invasive species that threaten biodiversity, the game has also been successfully used for:
- mapping the accessibility of cities and bus stops,
- surveying the condition of streets and cycle paths,
- observing puddling of stormwater and road surfaces,
- inventories of manhole covers, culverts and infrastructure assets,
- reporting places that feel unsafe in the city,
- encouraging everyday climate actions (the Emissions Game), and
- cleaning up local nature (the Litter Game).
More information from Crowdsorsa’s website: crowdsorsa.com
Contact information
| Juulia Juslin Environmental planner, Janakkala municipality +358 40 149 5216 juulia.juslin@janakkala.fi | Toni Paju Managing director, Crowdsorsa +358 40 661 0072 toni.paju@crowdsorsa.com |