Two people picking up rubbish along a coastline.

Training citizen scientists to protect our coasts

Sustainable Coastlines believes everyone should be involved in caring for our shores. They’re training citizens to collect valuable coastal data.

Last updated:

As an island nation our relationship with the sea is a big part of our identity. That’s why it is so important that we all chip in to take care of our local beaches.

In 2018, Sustainable Coastlines launched Litter Intelligence programme with support from the Ministry for the Environment.

The aim of this programme is to build NZ’s first national coastal litter database.

Collecting litter data provides powerful insights and helps determine effective solutions.

Sustainable Coastlines trains citizen scientists around New Zealand to monitor their own local stretches of coastline and input that information into the database.

This is one of many programmes that Sustainable Coastlines run.

They host large-scale beach clean-ups, educational programmes, and run public awareness campaigns and planting projects.

Find out more on the Sustainable Coastlines website.