Citizen science is a somewhat familiar term - but what does it entail in practice, and how can it be applied in the context of agroecological transitions? 

The focus of a recent presentation entitled One Million Voices initiative: Introducing Citizen Science for Agroecology – held on 28 February – was to answer that exact question and to provide real-life examples of citizen science from around the world.

Citizen science is an important aspect of agroecology and the Transformative Partnership Platform on Agroecology's (TPP) One Million Voices initiative in particular. Supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the initiative was launched at the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) side event in September of last year. Through a bold citizen science campaign that follows the principles of participation, inclusion, and overall social equity, the initiative aims to bring smallholder farmers, farm workers and food consumers together and have them lead the way to identify and develop solutions to support agroecological transitions, while generating knowledge and data on agroecology.