Karibu to the WILDLABS East Africa Community!
Why WE Exist
After 7 years of strategically building the global WILDLABS community, it was now time for our team to venture into the next phase of our programme: creating regional virtual hubs. The very first regional hub to go live is the East Africa community, a space that will create opportunities for members to build their knowledge, skills, expertise and reach. The idea behind creating the EA community spanned from the need to foster connections and collaborations of conservation and technology players in EA as well as make a true positive impact by tailoring resources and opportunities that will help solve conservation challenges in the region. Learn more
All we do at WILDLABS is firmly grounded on the community we serve and hope to serve! As part of this commitment, time and resources have been dedicated to ensure that this platform will be a reliable and credible resource to advance one’s knowledge, skills and be a step towards solving some of the most pressing conservation issues WE face in East Africa.
WE exist to fulfill the needs of conservation technology players in East Africa through resources & opportunities, to add value to their work, to inspire innovation & collaboration and most importantly, to contribute towards making the world a better place!
What WE Hope To Achieve
Purposefully designed to connect conservation technology practitioners and experts based in East Africa, the WILDLABS EA community will be a great space to access and share conservation technology resources, ask and answer questions unique to the landscape, collaborate and generate new and innovative ideas.
This platform is a great space for members to collaboratively fill in regional conservation tech knowledge and skills gaps present and share their work and other resources, reducing and/or eliminating replication and leading to more streamlined and effective solutions. Through the conversations taking place within the community, members will be able to connect with each other and get advice to advance their work, careers, and innovative ideas.
The community hopes to encourage level interactions that will generate new ideas on solving regional conservation tech challenges, encourage innovation, introduce members to new applications of tech in conservation, as well as spark new questions on Conservation tech in EA.
How To Get Involved
Are you keen on getting involved and understanding the intersection of conservation and technology in East Africa? This community offers an exceptional space where you can join us and get involved; to learn, share, collaborate and support one another on matters regarding conservation technology in East Africa. From posting articles, engaging in discussions, attending virtual and in-person events to supporting, applying or taking part in Programmes and opportunities in the community, these are some of the ways for you to get involved.
The first thing you can do when joining our community is to jump into our welcome thread and introduce yourself to our community. Get started here
Resources
The WILDLABS team is dedicated to making conservation tech resources accessible to the whole community in a strategic and equitable manner. With a myriad of engaging events, programmes, weekly conversations and opportunities lined up, the East Africa community will be a great virtual place to build one’s skills, knowledge, and networks. Growing a vibrant and diverse community will be made possible by the collaborative efforts of all members through their interactions and their active participation in regional activities organized/supported by WILDLABS.
Some of the resources that will give you a feel of Conservation technology tools and systems implemented in East Africa include:
- Using IoT and Machine Learning to Protect Kenya's Rivers.
- Learning Resource: Exploring Species Interactions with Snapshot Serengeti.
- Mobile Phone Reporting for Rapid Wildlife Health Response in Uganda
Members of the East Africa community are invited to share their projects, organizations, experiences, failures, and ideas in their Conservation Tech work, to support the development of tools that will form part of the resources made available to other members.
Programmes
Women in Conservation Technology Programme
With a cohort of 15 talented and emerging female conservationists, our inaugural Women in Conservation Technology Programme, is the first of many Programmes organized for the community. WILDLABS, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, and Fauna & Flora International partnered to run this programme as the very first opportunity organized for the East Africa community.
This programme is designed for early career Kenyan women in conservation who are looking to explore emerging conservation technologies. In addition to in-person and virtual training on foundational skills and knowledge on conservation technologies to overcome conservation and wildlife challenges in Kenya, participants have an opportunity to network with a strong cohort of other women leaders in the field and gain professional development skills. Through this unique blend of training and networking, we hope to empower Kenyan women in conservation who are often underrepresented in the sector. It is an avenue to encourage the group to generate innovative ideas, novel solutions, and diverse perspectives that engender conservation success.
We received close to 200 outstanding applications for the Programme this year, and this reminded us of the collaborative conservation efforts, implemented through great projects running, exceptional conservation and technology organizations and visionary conservationists in East Africa. We hope to reach more conservation technologists to build their knowledge and skills through such trainings and capacity building Programmes.
'Women in Science are often underrepresented in Kenya. Intentionally creating this training Programme for Women in Conservation Technology goes a long way to show that well-thought out initiatives are currently being put in place to empower women in the field. This Programme will not only benefit me, but will be a motivation to upcoming Women in Conservation Technology.'~ Consolata Gathoni Gitau
With the knowledge and skills garnered from this programme, participants will be able to spread awareness of novel conservation technology solutions to their home organizations and empower other female conservationists. We believe that this Programme is a great strategic direction towards empowering early career female conservationists!
Events
From in-person and virtual events, this hub is a great place tailored for conservationists and technologists in East Africa to support each other in creating novel solutions to complex regional conservation challenges. The East Africa community will be part of already established virtual events such as Tech Tutors and Virtual meetups, where topics covered will answer questions related to conservation challenges unique to East Africa. The virtual events will bring together members and participants to learn new skills, get expert advice, ask questions, gain knowledge and foster existing knowledge and skills.
The East Africa community exists because of each of you, and we hope you are happy to join and use the platform for knowledge sharing, collaboration and networking. You can join the community and interact with other members here. To get in touch with Netty Cheruto, our WILDLABS East Africa Community Coordinator, email her at: [email protected].
Header Image: @Dylan Habil
Group curators
- @EstherGithinji
- | She/Her
WILDLABS & Fauna & Flora
I am the WILDLABS East Africa Conservation Technology Coordinator
- 101 Resources
- 24 Discussions
- 4 Groups
Article
Read our interview with Clementine Uwamahoro, African Parks’ Country Manager in Conservation Technology overlooking technology operations for both Akagera National Park and Nyungwe National Park.
29 November 2023
In the sprawling African savannas, the Acacia xanthophloea takes the spotlight, weaving a tale of resilience against herbivores. The defense mechanisms of plants, such as spines, thorns, and prickles emerge as nature's...
28 November 2023
TagRanger® is a state-of-the-art wildlife finding, monitoring and tracking solution for research, conservation and environmental professionals. With superior configurability for logging data, reporting location and...
23 November 2023
There are six opportunities aimed at enhancing conservation science capacity, education and leadership in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Read on to learn more.
21 November 2023
The Women in Conservation Technology Programme, Kenya Cohort have made substantial progress towards their conservation tech objectives as pitched at the closing workshop in November 2022. We catch up with the cohort as...
14 November 2023
At KENVO's Environmental and Conservation Department, I was able to participate in detailed bird, biodiversity and threatened plant species monitoring in Kereita Forest as part of an ITF restoration project, as well as...
14 November 2023
My passion is in designing and implementing conservation projects that address conservation challenges in the grassroots. The WiCT Programme is exactly what I needed to realise and get a clear picture of my...
14 November 2023
Lewa-Borana Landscape (LBL) has over 490 bird species and using the pointers above, I have been able to develop a bird’s photo evidence database which is currently over 80%. The database helps us document the birds of...
14 November 2023
Article
Support from the WiCT Programme assisted me in pursuing research on the electric rhino fence effects on other wildlife species in Loisaba Conservancy. This project will provide insight into how the design of the fence...
14 November 2023
Leading the International Primates Day Awareness Celebrations in the TRPNR, Kenya's center for primate conservation and home to five of the nine primate species and three of the eleven primate subspecies on the Kenyan...
14 November 2023
Engaging in seagrass conservation research along the Kenyan coast with dynamic approaches that integrate the skills I gained from the WiCT Training as part of my Master’s (by thesis) in Zoology program at Stellenbosch...
14 November 2023
Gaining access to research equipment including a new laptop and hard disk has been a game changer for my master’s project. I am now able to carry out data analysis and communication of findings more efficiently.
14 November 2023
June 2024
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August 2023
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Congo Basin activity?
30 March 2023 9:14pm
How do I get started with Bird Audio processing and classification?
17 April 2023 9:11am
How do I extract spatial data from EarthRanger to create maps on QGIS & ArcGIS Pro?
3 April 2023 12:35pm
In Review: The Women in Conservation Technology Programme, Kenya
3 April 2023 11:50am
Apply now: Women in Conservation Technology Programme, Tanzania
3 April 2023 10:31am
Are you Using EarthRanger?
9 June 2022 6:02am
9 June 2022 9:38am
Very Insightful Ken! Great to see how the team at Ol Pejeta has been keen on integrating EarthRanger with other software, to have everything in a single system and better monitor wildlife and manage resources.
16 March 2023 4:55pm
Netty,
I was recently working with a client integrating Internet of Things hardware alerts through EarthRanger to automatically create a work order and dispatch fieldworkers to deal with the alert issue. Unfortunately the client has become very busy and the work put on hold, but we are interested in completing the integration to the benefit of all those using EarthRanger. Do you have a contact at EarthRanger who we could deal with directly?
Rupert
16 March 2023 5:29pm
Hi Rupert,
My name is Jordan Steward and I lead comms and marketing for EarthRanger. Happy to put you in contact with a member of our team who can help you out here. My email is [email protected].
Thanks,
Jordan
How do I select an ivory sampling method to generate intelligence data?
15 March 2023 11:56am
WILDLABS Conservation Technology Intern, Kenya
9 March 2023 11:23am
How do I get started with Landsat for Land use and Land cover mapping?
6 March 2023 10:15am
“Smelly” Elephant Repellent
24 February 2023 8:54am
Mobilising East African nature restoration professionals
21 February 2023 3:57pm
Monitoring & Technology Technical Specialist
15 February 2023 9:55am
How do I get started with mobile phones in sea turtle monitoring?
13 February 2023 10:01am
How do I get started with setting up my camera trap to monitor wildlife?
6 February 2023 5:42pm
Gender Equality in Conservation
30 January 2023 10:27am
Africa in Conservation Biology
30 January 2023 8:42am
Society for Conservation Biology just launched their "Africa in Conservation Biology" platform, designed to enhance the visibility of African and/or Africa-based conservation professionals.
Could be a great place to find funding, networking, and professional development opportunities!
Join us for Tech Tutors: East Africa
18 January 2023 9:13am
8 January 2024 3:55pm
How do I fit GPS satellite tags to remotely monitor giraffe movements?
18 January 2023 9:05am
International Congress for Conservation Biology
16 January 2023 2:53pm
Frontiers Symposium: Digital tools for reversing environmental degradation
5 October 2022 10:23am
Conservation leadership: Learning
4 October 2022 2:29pm
ONLINE COURSE: Monitoring and Evaluation for Wildlife Conservation
4 October 2022 2:04pm
ONLINE COURSE: Project Management for Wildlife Conservation
4 October 2022 2:00pm
Live Q&A Discussion on Ceres Tag: An animal monitoring Solution!
17 August 2022 6:57am
1 September 2022 5:48am
Hi Peter, Other users are having success embedding the tag into the rear face of the rear horn, see photos
26 September 2022 9:17pm
Is there any sort of automatic drop-off mechanism for the tags? Or does the animal need to be re-captured to take the tag off?
29 September 2022 3:52am
Hi Carly,
There are no built in automatic drop-off mechanism for the tags. We do have customers that have purchased and incorporated the tag into different types of harness and collars.
Happy to discuss further with you to understand your use case. Head over to www.cerestag.com and there is a "let's talk" button.
Senior Conservation Technology Expert Position (Consultancy) with the Global Wildlife Program
22 September 2022 5:35pm
Catch Up with The Variety Hour: November 2022
22 September 2022 2:12pm
Key Takeaways: Building the East Africa community!
7 September 2022 6:44am
8 September 2022 1:00am
Establishing and Building the East Africa Community: Looking back on Year 1!
7 September 2022 5:55am
ONLINE COURSE: Grant Writing for Wildlife Conservation
31 August 2022 2:38pm
Online Hackathon: Predators conservation in the Maasai Mara
22 August 2022 10:32am
25 April 2023 5:08pm
greetings!
i sent you a PM regarding this, feel free to contact me however is most convenient for you -
regards,
chris