The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a global call to action to address the world’s most pressing societal, environmental, and economic challenges. The achievement of the SDGs relies on our ability to accurately measure progress towards their targets using timely, relevant, and reliable data. In addition to the SDGs, there are other frameworks, such as the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework that also require better monitoring and implementation, to which citizen science could contribute. Citizen science offers a novel solution to complement and enhance official statistics for better monitoring of these frameworks. It can also support the attainment of the goals of these frameworks by mobilizing action while at the same time empowering individuals, communities, and society, including the most hard-to-reach and vulnerable groups.

This Special Collection offers insights into the contributions of citizen science to the monitoring, implementation, and achievement of the SDGs as well as other international agreements and frameworks. It compiles the latest research, results, and actionable recommendations from a diverse set of actors, such as citizen science researchers and practitioners, NSOs, and International Organizations involved in research at the intersection of citizen science and the SDGs and/or other international frameworks. It reflects on how this new field of research has been evolving over the past few years and provides a varied agenda for future research and action.