Environmental DNA Expeditions in UNESCO World Heritage Marine sites
Engaging citizen scientists in revealing the richness and vulnerability of biodiversity for the conservation of UNESCO sites in a changing climate
The Environmental DNA Expeditions in UNESCO World Heritage sites is an innovative project to study biodiversity. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is increasingly becoming one of the most efficient tools in biodiversity conservation. By using only a small amount of seawater, the eDNA sampling technique successfully reduces the cost and effort of sampling to determine the species richness in protected areas such as the heritage marine site around the globe. The eDNA project runs from December 2021 until December 2023 and was a unique initiative funded by both the UNESCO Science Trust Fund (FUST) and the Flanders UNESCO Trust Fund (FUT, managed by the Flanders Department of Chancellery and Foreign Affairs).
Spanning 21 marine World Heritage sites in 19 countries, the UNESCO eDNA Expeditions pilot program demonstrated the thransformative potential of citizen science in enhancing ocean biodiversity monitoring and conservation. OBIS, in collaboration with the World Heritage Centre, implemented cutting-edge eDNA sampling techniques and developed an advanced data dashboard for the program, paving way to future large-scale biodiversity monitoring campaigns. The data collected from the expeditions was analyzed to provide information about local biodiversity under the effect of global warming scenarios. The eDNA project promoted public participation in environmental sampling under the guidance of UNESCO on-site leaders. Local citizens were engaged in on-site procedures such as the sampling process, the filtering, and DNA fixing before sending the samples to the central laboratory for DNA sequencing. A standardized methodology for sampling, data monitoring, and data management were applied globally while making the data publicly available.
The eDNA project aimed to:
- Create an open source for standardized sampling protocols, analysis techniques, and data in collaboration with OBIS. OBIS data interface can be found at https://obis.org/
- Promote participation of local citizens and youth in marine science thanks to the simple eDNA protocol. At the same time, inspiring the next generation of scientists.
- Support the decision-making process by providing and interpreting the results from eDNA sampling.
- Perfect the methodology for eDNA to improve data comparability and enhance cross-data sharing.
The collected eDNA data was administered and published by the OBIS. OBIS is a global open-access data and information clearing-house on marine biodiversity for science conservation and sustainable development. The eDNA project in collaboration with OBIS developed explicit tools to contribute eDNA data to OBIS data system. Moreover, the eDNA project worked together with the PacMAN project to build a DNA database for local species as a pioneer for early detection of non-indigenous species (NIS) and practice data and metadata processing workflow from raw sequence reads to standardized OBIS occurrence data.
Under FUST funding, the project was successfully concluded in December 2024 and outputs published, where over 250 citizen scientists identified more than 4 000 species.
For more information about the project, visit the official website for eDNA project or the OBIS website https://obis.org/2024/12/09/eDNAdashboard/
The eDNA expeditions in marine World Heritage sites were endorsed by Ocean Decade Actions as a citizen-science projects. By engaging local citizens, the project contributes to public awareness of marine ecosystems. At the same time, the project promotes open access to ocean data, information, technology, and innovation, creates a digital presentation of the Ocean, and supports community resilience to ocean hazards.
Phase II of the eDNA project was launched at UNOC 3 in Nice, France in June 2025. This phase of the eDNA Expeditions is a new global campaign that empowers communities to monitor marine biodiversity with simple, science-based kits, boosting engagement for Ocean action.
More information on https://obis.org/2025/06/12/edna-expeditions-phase2-launch/
