Project Summary

GUARDEN: harnessing artificial intelligence and citizen science for biodiversity

The GUARDEN project (safeGUARDing biodivErsity aNd critical ecosystem services across sectors and scales) was a research project funded by Horizon Europe (Grant Agreement No. 101060693), carried out from November 2022 to October 2025 and coordinated by CIRAD (France). It brought together an international consortium of scientists, companies, protected area managers, and public authorities to develop digital tools for better observing biodiversity, anticipating its evolution, and integrating this knowledge into conservation and land-use decisions.

GUARDEN combined citizen science, satellite data, artificial intelligence, and ecological modelling to generate information directly relevant to biodiversity management and decision-making. The project developed species distribution maps, biodiversity indicators, and tools for exploring potential changes and their impacts on ecosystems.

Pl@ntNet’s role

Pl@ntNet played a dual role in the project: as a data source, through the millions of botanical observations shared by its users, and as a scientific infrastructure, hosting new services for biodiversity monitoring and mapping.

GUARDEN extended Pl@ntNet’s capabilities beyond the identification of individual plants. New methods were developed to identify multiple species in a single vegetation photograph, estimate plant diversity and vegetation cover, and facilitate standardised vegetation surveys.

The project also developed tools to map the potential distribution of plant species by combining Pl@ntNet observations with climate, environmental, and satellite data. Particular attention was given to protected species and invasive alien species.

Finally, these developments support the characterisation of habitats based on plant communities, including through the use of Sentinel-2 imagery and joint modelling of species distributions.

From data to action

GUARDEN followed an open and participatory science approach, developing reusable software, methods, and datasets and promoting their sharing through open infrastructures such as GitHub, Zenodo, and GBIF.

By connecting citizen observations, artificial intelligence, ecology, and mapping, GUARDEN contributes to the evolution of Pl@ntNet from a plant identification tool into a broader infrastructure for observing and monitoring plant biodiversity, generating information that can support research, conservation, and land management.

GUARDEN News

GUARDEN : Where can I find more information about its achievements?


The GUARDEN project officially came to an end in January 2026, following three years of research carried out under the Horizon Europe programme. Although the research activities have now been completed, all project results remain publicly available. The official GUARDEN website brings together the main resources produced by the consortium, including project news, demonstrators, case studies, scientific publications, public deliverables, developed tools, and communication materials. All of these resources can be accessed HERE.

The project’s final results and overall outcomes are also available on the European Commission’s CORDIS platform, which provides an overview of the project’s objectives, partners, key achievements, and final reports. The dedicated GUARDEN CORDIS page is available HERE.

Key partners