AMBER is looking for cooperation in the field

The AMBER team met mid-February in Brussels to discuss progress with the European Commission and its communication strategy for coming years. A lot of progress in the project is being made and now it is time to connect with people in practice throughout Europe.

The app will be launched at different locations throughout Europe on the 21st of April, asking citizens to support the building of a map with all the freshwater barriers in Europe. People can upload photos and locations of barriers that they see in their surrounding and this information will be used to complete the map.

One of the main conclusions of the meeting was that it will be a nice challenge to bring the worlds of the scientists and local citizens together. Although the understanding of the need to deal with the issue of fragmentation of rivers is shared, the approach and language used can differ significantly. As a strategy the AMBER team members decided to involve and support people in European regions who are already eager to improve connectivity of rivers and who are able to make a difference in local situations. The AMBER project can support with river basin wide information and awareness on the issue by policymakers, whilst key people in the regions can help mobilizing citizens to use the app. The team is thinking of people who benefit directly from healthy and connected rivers, like anglers and canoeing enthusiasts.

The AMBER project team is working hard on the Barrier tracker smartphone application and citizen science website, allowing citizen to map barriers in European rivers. Follow AMBER on Twitter and Facebook or sign up for the newsletter to know when they become available!