Sensitive Species and Obscuration and CREW curator access
iNaturalist have improved their security around Sensitive Species, making it even more impossible to access localities for these species.
We consequently need to review our handling of these as well.
We will therefore be updating our curators and upgrading those projects that we need for accessing the data for Red List Assessments, Conservation Planning and Taxonomical Research.
You should get notification of these during the course of the week.
Please review your membership of this project.
click Your membership (the cog on the right hand banner) [if you cannot see it, first join the project])
Select the option: Trust this project with hidden coordinates:
YES: For any of my observations.
You only need to do this for the Umbrella project – unless you have specified a different option for the 13 projects in this umbrella, you do not need to do anything more. If you have different settings, please change them to this.
Yes: you should also join all 13 Red List projects. That will alert you on your smartphone or on your observation that a species is on the Red List – the current Red List Status will also appear in the projects on your observations if you join all the projects.
FAQ:
?Q: Why can I not just join one project and do my settings there?
!A: Your most restrictive setting will apply. So if you join two projects but restrict access in one, it will apply to the others, even if they grant access. So unfortunately, you will need to review your settings on any project that allows access to locality data on Sensitive Species. CREW members must allow give permissions on the https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/habitats-s-afr , https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/crew-contributors/members and https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/redlist-s-afr projects.
?Q: Why can I just not trust the staff directly, under the trust relationships? Why use the projects?
!A: Staff move on. The projects will allow CREW staff – whoever they are - to access the data far into the future. So if specific staff members leave CREW, or retire, or die, then the new staff will be able to access the data.
Be very careful who you trust. These projects should allow you to tell anyone who wants data on Sensitive Species to contact SANBI for the data: do not give them access to your data, unless you are 100% certain that they are genuine researchers – and that they will not pass on your data to other people, who may be less scrupulous. SANBI will check credentials before allowing a once-off access to data. Be especially careful if they ask for specimens even if they appear to be researchers: don’t do poachers dirty work for them!
?Q: What happens if I change my mind in the future, and don’t trust some CREW staff?
!A: You can review your settings at any time. Simply follow the steps above and select “No”. Hopefully, this will never happen.
?Q: How can we trust CREW staff?
!A: You will be informed on your dashboard every time a curator is changed on any of your projects allowing access to sensitive information. You are welcome to contact the CREW office and obtain more information on new CREW curators if you are concerned.
?Q: What should we be aware of to not accidentally expose sensitive species?
!A: These steps should help:
• Never put locality information in Notes or Comments or Observation fields. Put them all in the Locality Box (in edit mode: “Where were you?” ; in the bulk uploader: “Locality notes” - unfortunately not editable on smartphones). They will then be hidden except to those you trust.
• When uploading, upload common species and sensitive species separately: don’t allow poachers to follow your route. iNaturalist will hide times, dates, nearby observations and follow buttons, but you need to do your bit.
• Identify known Sensitive Species as quickly as possible so that they are immediately obscured.
• Remember that not all Red List Species are Sensitive. Sensitive Species are those where the locality information will help poachers. Where it wont help, or poaching is not a concern, then obscuring is not recommended as it causes complications in accessing the data. Be cautious, but don’t go overboard. Contact the CREW office if you think a species should be hidden, or if you think that it should not be hidden.
• Don’t trust other users – rather trust the curations on the CREW Project, and refer anyone who wants data to SANBI. SANBI will check their credentials (including if they have been involved in poaching in the past), before allowing them a once-off access to the data. Be very careful when you join projects that you are not giving those curators access to Sensitive Data.
?Q: Someone has just asked me if I can get them seed/specimens/parts for a species. I am suspicious. What can I do?
?A: Contact the CREW office (if it is an animal, they will forward it to the animal teams), or contact iNaturalist at help@inaturalist.org Don’t be fooled by Facebook pages and listed credentials: they may be fake, a stolen identity or a “previous life”. If you find evidence of any wrong-doing on their part while checking up on them, please inform the CREW office immediately.
?Q: Where can I find out more about how Sensitive Species work on iNaturalist?
?A: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#geoprivacy
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Comentarios
Tony many thanks for this info which I have sent to all the Outramps. It is a great help. This issue of posting sensitive species is really worrying us with the escalation of poaching. Its not so much the fynbos but the lowland areas although one of our group saw a man harvesting Glad sempervirens on the Outeniqua Pass much to our consternation!
Im just not clear about whether we have to join all 13 projects if we never have before. Surely if we just use the umbrella project with the correct curator places ticked that should be OK.
The first FAQ was intended to answer this question. Only the umbrella project gives CREW & SANBI staff access to hidden coordinates. So joining any other Red List project is not relevant: trust is only needed on the umbrella.
The advantage of joining the other 13 projects is purely for them to display on your observation - and alert you to their specific Red List Status (the umbrella project will alert you to that they have a Red List status, but the individual projects will specify which status).
Again, the umbrella project collects all data automatically: you dont have to even join it. But for CREW staff to see obscured data - any poachable species - you do need to both join and allow access to the data.
CREW members will also be asked to join and trust the Habitats project, and if you submit CREW data, you will also have to join and trust the "Redlist (s Afr)" project. More about this at the CREW Workshop next week.
I hope you reported the Glad poacher to conservation and the police. Was he collecting just flowers or bulbs as well?
Tony one of our members, Peter Thompson dealt with it. The relevant people were called, I cant remember who they got in touch with. Sandra was directing things from the Berg .Di and I were not around. They were collecting the whole plant . They were so beautiful and all over the pass. The guy ran away when he realised had had been seen. The plants were taken to the Botanical Garden.
Well done. Was it documented on iNat or somewhere that this species was being poached?
I see hasnt mentioned it in his postings .I will ask him to do so.
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