From October 2019 to January 2020, Rewilding Apennines conducted a pilot with the Cluey Data Collector and Tracking app of Sensing Clues. The pilot started with a training workshop: Dr. Jan Kees Schakel taught Rewilding Apennines’ staff and a high-motivated group of Salviamo l’Orso’s volunteers the principles and secrets of data collector. They all learnt how to use Cluey very quickly. Since day 2 of the project, the staff of Rewilding Apennines and ten volunteers of Salviamo l'Orso have recorded over 3,000 observations, including wildlife sightings and signs of presence, wildlife induced damages and protective measures, important food resources, and environmental threats and abuses, including two fish traps. The work of the team was facilitated by the easy and handy functioning of the Cluey app, which operates on Android phones, even in mountain areas with low or no cellphone coverage.
“Cluey is extremely useful to monitor the wildlife signs of presence during the time, also in order to easily confront on the map what the other volunteers found in a certain area. This means sharing data in real time”, says our Field Officer Fabrizio Cordischi.
This experience has been extremely positive and shows how modern technology can help field work, helping nature conservation instead of detaching humans from nature.