City Nature Challenge 2021
Join us for the 2021 City Nature Challenge! We want your observations of the nature near you! Help us document the incredible biodiversity of cities around the world 30 April – 3 May. Visit the official City Nature Challenge website to see the full list of cities participating in the 6th annual City Nature Challenge, and be sure to check the boundaries of the CNC projects by zooming in on the map in this umbrella project – many cities include their larger metro areas.
Want to participate in the CNC but your city isn’t taking part this year? Join the City Nature Challenge Global Project to have your observations count for the CNC.
Have questions? Visit the City Nature Challenge FAQs or the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge forum for help!
What is the City Nature Challenge?
Invented by citizen science staff at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (Lila Higgins) and California Academy of Sciences (Alison Young). The City Nature Challenge is an international effort for people to find and document plants and wildlife in cities across the globe. It’s a bioblitz-style competition where cities are in a contest against each other to see who can make the most observations of nature, who can find the most species, and who can engage the most people.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we made some modifications to City Nature Challenge 2020 to help keep our organizers and participants safe. Firstly, CNC 2020 pivoted to be a collaboration rather than a competition. Instead, we wanted to embrace the healing power of nature and encourage the celebratory aspect of the CNC. This allowed people to safely document biodiversity in whatever way they could, even from the safety of their own homes. We urged all participants to carefully follow public health guidelines provided by their local governments, as they are changed in real-time. Individual safety and public health were and will be our utmost priority. The decision as to whether CNC 2021 will be a competition or collaboration will be announced in 2021.
Why participate in the City Nature Challenge?
There is nature all around us, even in our cities! Knowing what species are in our city and where they are helps us study and protect them, but the ONLY way to do that is by all of us – scientists, land managers, and the community – working together to find and document the nature in our area. By participating in the City Nature Challenge, not only do you learn more about your local nature, but you can also make your city a better place – for you and other species!
Create your own iNaturalist account
- Visit iNaturalist.org
- Download the app from the AppStore or Google Play
- Sign In
- Start sharing your observations
- Get feedback from actual scientists, experts, and other naturalists
The first observations comments can be seen now on INaturalist – link