The author recalls some of the achievements of the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project and other citizen science projects that were run by the Animal Demography Unit (then the Avian Demography Unit, ADU). The traditional motivation for such projects is cast into doubt, given that expansion of species-conservation programmes is unlikely to occur in an era when there are so many competing crises in the South Africa and the world. Notwithstanding this cautionary stance, the author suggests that citizen science does, in fact, have an important role to play through engagement, documentation and education. He furthermore suggests that the value of these aspects is likely to become manifest in the future, rather than the present. The discussion concludes with an overview of the type of organizational structure required to maximise the usefulness and impact of citizen science.

作者回顾了第一个“南部非洲鸟类地图集”项目以及其他由动物人口统计学部门（然后称为ADU鸟类人口统计学部门）管理的公民科学项目所取得的成就。鉴于在南非和世界上有如此多的竞争危机的时代，物种保护计划的扩展不太可能发生，因此此类项目的传统动机令人怀疑。尽管采取了这种谨慎的态度，但作者认为，公民科学实际上通过参与，记录和教育而发挥着重要作用。他进一步建议，这些方面的价值很可能在未来而不是现在变得明显。