抄録
This article explains the strategy and methodology for promoting citizen participation in the activities of biological diversity surveys basing on the experiences of the Environmental Resources Mapping Project in Osaka City. The project was carried out in fiscal years 1991-1997 by the municipal government with 1200 citizen participants; the author worked as the organizer of citizen volunteers throughout the project period. Encouragement of participants was attained by offering them opportunities for participation in group activities, by giving them intensive and systematic training through instructor group leaders and survey manuals, by providing them with opportunities to report the results of their own surveys, by publishing their findings in mass-media such as television and newspapers, and by issuing annual reports on the project. With active participation, the project was able to publish four colored environmental resource maps, one course guidebook, and two mesh data books as final reports on its activity. Since the completion of the project, the network of citizen volunteers, one of the most valuable fruits of the project, has been maintained by shifting the work base to the Eco Museum of Osaka, a center for environmental education founded in 1997.
