Threatened Species Obscured Locations

[Mike Schijf]

I work for an agency that is considering launching a citizen science effort for Mojave desert tortoises, and we are considering iNaturalist as the platform. 

I realize that iNaturalist obscures all data from the public for threatened/endangered species (which I believe is a good thing). However, I was curious if this exact location info is also obscured for the Admin/Curators of the project. The coordinate information would be very helpful from a management/distribution standpoint. However, I also understand the possible concern that not everyone who creates a project has the best intentions in mind. 

Can somebody help me out here? Thanks!

[Tony Iwane]

Hi Mark,

If you are the curator of a project and observers have joined your project and given you permission to see obscured/private locations, you will be able to see the true locations of the observations if they're in your project (depending upon the permission they gave you and how the observations were added).

Tony

[Tony Iwane]

For example, when you join a project, you are given these options when joining a project:

Tony

[tony rebelo]

Does this apply to IUCN threatened species?  

It makes sense if this applies to "private" obscurations.  How does iNat stop poachers/collectors from harvesting information for sensitive species?  

So all I have to do as a poacher is create  a project and hoodwink users to allow me to see their locations?  Surely this is not acceptable?

[Star Donovan]

That's a good point, Tony Rebelo.
Perhaps there could be a fourth choice added the coordinates settings when joining a project: "Yes, unless the observation is automatically obscured by IUCN status."

Any added to project before ID'd would still be visible to project curators, but it would otherwise prevent the scenario you describe.


Of course, it would have to be present on both new projects and existing projects (even trusted ones) in case the project curators change; I don't know how feasible that is.

[Tony Iwane]

Yes, it applies to any observation with an obscured location. There are obviously flaws, but that's our current system and as of yet there hasn't been evidence of nefarious project creators. 

As Scott said in this thread, creating a better way for researchers to access obscured locations and keep things safe is something we want to accomplish this year. 

Tony Iwane

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