Ten years ago, we couldn't have imagined how tools like machine learning, eDNA, and satellites would advance and transform conservation work. Now technology is advancing faster than ever, and as tools become smaller, lighter, and more affordable, it's vital to have a space where community members can discuss the next big thing, share ideas, compare tool options, and tell the story of their experiences - positive, negative, and anything in between - while using new technologies.
In 2021, the WILDLABS State of Conservation Tech report detailed what tools show the most promise according to community members, as well as what tools are currently seen as the most effective. And as new tools enter the field, we're excited to see how this data will change over time, and how this group grows over time as well.
Our State of Conservation Tech research also discusses something called the "Hype Cycle" - the pattern that occurs when a new technology bursts onto the scene, promises to be an exciting solution, encounters challenges as new users adopt the tool and put it into practice beyond just theory, and eventually settles into its most effective state as users acquire the right skills to use it to its actual potential. Machine learning, one of the most promising technologies, is currently in the middle of its own hype cycle, and we see community members working through their own hurdles to incorporate ML into their work effectively. Despite what you may think, this Hype Cycle can also be positive for tech development, as it means that users have big ideas for new tools, and with the right resources and skills, they can work toward bringing those ideas to life. And as our community members experiences the Hype Cycle for various tools at their own paces, we hope this group will also serve as a place to discuss that process and overcome hurdles together.
Ready to discover new possibilities? Join our Emerging Tech group now and get to know your forward-thinking conservation tech peers!
Header photo: Internet of Elephants
Wildlife Entrepreneur | Innovation for Nature Conservation | Systems-thinking | Web3.0 | DAOs | Rewilding & more
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Passionate and curious about nature and its diversity, I seek to learn more about conservation, new technologies, and the unknown and infinite environmental world.
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- 0 Discussions
- 18 Groups
Wildlife Drones
Wildlife Drones has developed the world’s most innovative radio animal-tracking system using drones so you can track your radio-tagged animals like never before.
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- 2 Discussions
- 32 Groups
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- 10 Groups
I'm a PhD researcher at Royal Holloway University of London (Centre for GeoHumanities) researching modalities of sound-sensing technologies across climate and conservation sciences. Interested in ethics and histories of acoustic monitoring as well as new visualization methods.
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- 1 Discussions
- 10 Groups
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Eco-entrepreneur. Concerned with the fundamental interconnectedness of all things creative and environmental.
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- 2 Discussions
- 8 Groups
Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB), Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Behavioral Ecologist
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- 1 Discussions
- 14 Groups
Design Strategist - Regenerative Futures
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- 13 Groups
GIS and Database Coordinator at the Rainforest Foundation UK
- 2 Resources
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- 6 Groups
University of Adelaide
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- 9 Discussions
- 17 Groups
WILDLABS
I'm the WILDLABS Research Lead at WWF-US
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- 48 Discussions
- 24 Groups
Are you excited by the potential for new technologies to help monitor the natural world? Do you enjoy communicating your passion for technology and nature with diverse audiences? We are seeking an enthusiastic...
2 February 2023
The role of no-code geospatial software in the fight against climate change
24 January 2023
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WILDLABS and Fauna & Flora International are seeking an early career Vietnamese conservationist for 12-month paid internship position to grow and support the Southeast Asia regional community in our global...
11 January 2023
Careers
PhD position (m/f/d) in Insect Ecology and Conservation
Andrew Fairbairn
This position focuses on the ecology aspect of the project, while a second PhD in Ilmenau will be dealing with programming/AI development. Because of the high temporal resolution of our data, we can investigate how land...
9 January 2023
Careers
Job: maker / workshop technician
Duncan Wilson
We are looking for someone who enjoys the craft of making to come and help run our London based lab.
5 January 2023
Rainforest Foundation UK is looking for a developer who wants to put their skills to use in the fight against climate change and social injustice.
19 December 2022
Careers
PhD - Sensory ecology of vespine wasps
Duncan Wilson
a technology-led solution to understanding the honeybees of the wasp world
8 December 2022
Rainforest Foundation UK is looking for a FullStack developer with an interest in environmental justice and the development of rainforest monitoring systems
6 December 2022
Article
New: Satellites for Biodiversity Award
EmmaOldham
Conservation partnership launches new award to advance biodiversity conservation from space
5 December 2022
This SPACES paper aims to inspire the audience to use spatial intelligence as an enabler for integrated nature and climate action. It showcases ’emerging’ data sources and digital technology in the nature and climate...
28 October 2022
*New closing date!* WILDLABS and Fauna & Flora International are seeking an early career conservationist for 12-month paid internship position to grow and support the Southeast Asia regional community in our global...
19 October 2022
Apply now for $2,500–$15,000 USD grants for early-stage ideas or projects that address global challenges.
4 October 2022
February 2023
event
December 2022
November 2022
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi,I'm the UX researcher at Rainforest Connection (RFCx). I use research methods such as interviews, usability testing, and card sorting to understand scientists' pain points and... |
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Conservation Tech Training and Education, Emerging Tech | 5 days 18 hours ago | |
Hi everyone. Titus here from the Philippines. We are currently working on creating a deep-sea dropcamera similar to Pau Anta's but... |
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Camera Traps, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 1 week 2 days ago | |
Really excited to see ChatGPT making waves even in this community! I think there's a huge amount of potential for not just ChatGPT, but LLMs (large language models) and NLP (... |
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AI for Conservation, Emerging Tech | 1 week 2 days ago | |
My original background is in ecology and conservation, and am now in the elected leadership of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware which convenes researchers developing open... |
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AI for Conservation, Biologging, Camera Traps, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools , Drones, Emerging Tech, Sensors | 2 weeks 5 days ago | |
Hello All - @sarabeery et Al have just put a pre-print out on their educational insights into teaching Computer Vision to ecologists. I... |
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Acoustic Monitoring, AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Early Career, Emerging Tech | 4 weeks ago | |
intrested. |
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Community Base, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools , Early Career, Emerging Tech | 1 month ago | |
Thanks Alice, it does! |
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Early Career, Emerging Tech | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
I just came across this interesting paper in which seismic monotoring of animals like elephants was mentioned. This is the study refered to:Cheers,Lars |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Emerging Tech, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Remote Sensing & GIS, Sensors | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
Hi Steph. Would be interested also. |
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Biologging, Community Base, Connectivity, Data management and processing tools , Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
As an update from us, we are playing around with two alternatives:Banana PI BPI-M5 M5 4GB 4 x 2GHz Radxa Rock 4 SE I'll update once we have results! |
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Acoustic Monitoring, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Camera Traps, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 2 months 1 week ago | |
Hey Sol, The only way for you to collect information from a GPS tag attached to a FAD is if that tag transmits that data to the drone. Unfortunately most receiver packages... |
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Drones, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 2 months 2 weeks ago | |
Out of curiosity, what are the similarities/differences between your platform and other image classification ones such as Wildlife Insights, WildID, ZambaCloud? I don't mean that... |
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AI for Conservation, Emerging Tech | 3 months 2 weeks ago |
Job: Building a network of conservation tech across continents
2 February 2023 1:50pm
Key Conservation Platform Launch Party!
2 February 2023 6:17am
Suggestions for user research/co-design methodologies
9 November 2022 11:32am
16 January 2023 3:06pm
Pinging @samkelly
31 January 2023 3:01pm
Hi,
I'm the UX researcher at Rainforest Connection (RFCx). I use research methods such as interviews, usability testing, and card sorting to understand scientists' pain points and needs while using the bioacoustic monitoring platform, Arbimon.
In terms of tools, I use Figjam for brainstorming and mapping, Notion for a research repository, Zoom for interviews, and Figma for prototyping. I'm exploring how to use ChatGPT to speed up my process too! I use it to draft recruitment emails, summarize transcripts etc. I try to use tools that are either low-cost or that RFCx already has subscriptions of.
Since I'm a UX team of one, I also partner with University student groups/practicum courses to let UX students take on some of our projects.
Feel free to reach out; I'm always happy to chat.
Deep Sea BRUVS Development
28 January 2023 1:41am
ChatGPT for conservation
16 January 2023 10:04am
27 January 2023 10:27am
I've been using it a bit for GIS and remote sensing. Automating code snippets and fixing errors.
Also used it for a few excel queries and some marketing related tasks.
What I'm so excited about is if it is this good now what's ai going to be like 10 years from now?
I really think 2023 is the year ai is going mainstream and people are going to have that 'aha so this is what it is all about moment'.
27 January 2023 10:40am
Great idea for a discussion Isobel. I was thinking also that it is likely to be a tool for good (rather than evil).
I have no idea how to use it (was googling about it yesterday...), so any infom shared here within WildLabs would be greatly received by many, I believe.
C.
27 January 2023 1:31pm
Really excited to see ChatGPT making waves even in this community! I think there's a huge amount of potential for not just ChatGPT, but LLMs (large language models) and NLP (natural language processing) more broadly, to have concrete impacts on conservation. Like others have already mentioned, it can definitely be useful as a coding assistant, especially for people who don't have the strongest programming skills (and I recommend anyone to check out tools such as RTutor if you haven't already!). Beyond that, the utility within the context of scientific research could be quite potent. Climate scientists have begun to leverage NLP in a variety of contexts, e.g. using ClimateBERT to analyze climate risk disclosures, and I have seen conversations about the possibility of using NLP to analyze biodiversity offset initiative reporting, for example. Personally, I also see some really exciting opportunities for using ChatGPT and other NLP tools to assist in knowledge management, synthesis, dissemination etc.
I have some pretty concrete ideas about what this could look like, but more than anything I'd be really curious to discuss it in this community to see what use cases people can imagine! @StephODonnell if you're looking for someone to facilitate a conversation on this I'd be happy to host! I've been hosting some conversations on ChatGPT within a different industry and it's sparked some really cool conversations 🤗
Western Section of The Wildlife Society 2023
25 January 2023 2:09am
We need more people using Earth observation data
24 January 2023 4:51pm
3 February 2023 11:11am
3 February 2023 11:17am
3 February 2023 7:40pm
Interview for Technologies in Conservation
24 November 2022 10:07am
16 January 2023 2:42pm
I'd be happy to chat with you if you wanted! My expertise is within passive acoustic monitoring particularly. The Conservation Tech Directory might be useful for you in identifying relevant actors within the space.
16 January 2023 5:16pm
Happy to contribute [email protected]
17 January 2023 5:12pm
My original background is in ecology and conservation, and am now in the elected leadership of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware which convenes researchers developing open source tech for science. I am not working on a specific piece of technology right now, but am happy to contribute some higher-level views for your interview if that helps.
Conservation Technology Intern (Vietnam)
11 January 2023 5:00pm
PhD position (m/f/d) in Insect Ecology and Conservation
9 January 2023 12:53pm
Education Paper on Computer Vision for Ecology
9 January 2023 5:30am
Job: maker / workshop technician
5 January 2023 10:53am
Conservation Design Project Recruitment
19 December 2022 5:52pm
4 January 2023 10:48am
intrested.
FULL STACK DEVELOPER (FOREST COMMUNITIES MONITORING SYSTEM)
19 December 2022 10:40am
Opportunity: networking, funding and more...
15 November 2022 4:35pm
24 November 2022 3:56pm
Hi Liz,
A bit of both - we certainly have people from both sides of that equation. The event will be very multi-disciplinary and aims specifically to bring together a broad range of people!
Hope that helps,
Thanks
Alice
2 December 2022 3:08pm
Super interesting! I registered immediately.
Perhaps good to know is that if one registers, it is not only to apply for the upcoming symposium but also for future ones. So even if the coming symposium is not a perfect fit, one may register anyways.
16 December 2022 3:06pm
Thanks Alice, it does!
Help - Innovative ways to track elephant movement
28 October 2022 4:50pm
4 November 2022 5:24pm
Why would you want to avoid alerting the rangers ?
You don't need high tech for this; elephants leave very obvious tracks and sign.
7 November 2022 12:52am
Hi Tyler,
Would like to introduce you to Ceres Tags products
- Ceres Tags products come in boxes of 5, 10 and 24.
- There are some software partners such as Earthranger, Mapipedia and possibly CiboLabs that would be able to assist you with your mapping vegetation requirements
- Ceres Tag does not require any towers, base stations and infrastructure. This allows you to see any movements from the heard outside of their normal herd (boundary alerts), and you will not be disturbing any of the flora and fauna with infrastructure set up.
- For the timing you are looking at, Ceres Wild pings directly to satellite 24 times a day. For Ceres Trace and Ceres Ranch there are 4 within 24 hours. Taking into consideration, when you set up alert areas, you will get them directly to your phone/laptop via your software of choice
- Ceres Ranch is a reusable tag that has just been launched. Use it on this project, remove the tag and then use the tag on your next project
- The software you choose will assist with the history of your animal movements. Ceres Tag is integrated with 11 software partners and in-development with 18 software partners https://cerestag.com/pages/software-partners
- Understanding it is a short-term project, you would be able to use Ceres Tags products without the additional expense of setting up and removing infrastructure- towers, gateways
- With Ceres Tag, you are purchasing the box of tags and picking a suitable software to deliver the information you require. On average, a box of 10 Ceres Trace Tags, is the same as 1 LoRaWAN tower.
14 December 2022 10:49am
I just came across this interesting paper in which seismic monotoring of animals like elephants was mentioned.
This is the study refered to:
Cheers,
Lars
Workshop Invite: Building Partnerships between Conservation Tech and the UK Space Sector
22 September 2022 3:50pm
5 December 2022 3:10pm
Hi Steph,
If it's not too late, I'm very interested in this workshop.
Best,
V
6 December 2022 5:52pm
Hey Vance! We hosted the workshop a few weeks ago, but we're doing follow up calls and future meetings. I'll loop you into the next call!
Steph
12 December 2022 12:03am
Hi Steph. Would be interested also.
PhD - Sensory ecology of vespine wasps
8 December 2022 12:47pm
Full-stack developer - Consultancy
6 December 2022 11:01am
New: Satellites for Biodiversity Award
5 December 2022 2:08pm
The force is strong with space lasers helping researchers map the Amazon in 3D
2 December 2022 1:16am
The International Space Station's GEDI instrument uses lasers to gather data on deforestation and impacts on atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to highlight key areas to conserve.
Global shortage of Raspberry Pis - What are the alternatives
3 November 2022 10:27am
18 November 2022 7:27pm
Hi @tom_august this is a very important topic given the global shortages we are seeing. I tend to use really low power micros rather than Pis for my stuff if I can, but I'd be very interested to hear about alternatives. I take it you are doing some reasonably heavy processing given the need for 4Bs? I have a few old 3s you are welcome to. A great list from @PshemekZ there. I don't know much about these:
But didn't see them in the list.
@Freaklabs will likey have some ideas too. Looking forward to hearing more.
Cheers,
Rob
21 November 2022 12:11am
Unfortunately not much to add. I think there was an assumption that Raspberry Pi's would always be available and it's turning out that it's unfortunately not the case. I'm guilty of this for standard chips. I didn't think there'd be such a huge shortage that spread across so many chip families which left us scrambling. I'm sure the supply crunch will ease up soon so the RasPi shortage should ease. It should be considered thought that should something happen to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, there's a possibility that the production could end. Since Raspberry Pi's are not open source, this would be devastating to many projects that rely on them.
As for porting to another platform, I guess the question would be which platform to bet on for the Raspberry Pi alternate and possibly eventual successor. It would probably need to be open source, widely available, and have enough community around it to support itself. Nothing immediately comes to mind (Jetson possibly but not open source and subject to whims of nVidia).
And perhaps this could turn into a community project to come up with an open platform that conservation communities can standardize on where availability could also be guaranteed. There's a lot of exciting things happening with the RISC-V architecture, which could be a good candiate.
24 November 2022 9:46am
As an update from us, we are playing around with two alternatives:
- Banana PI BPI-M5 M5 4GB 4 x 2GHz
- Radxa Rock 4 SE
I'll update once we have results!
Picking up signal of GPS tag
10 November 2022 11:29am
16 November 2022 10:54am
Thanks Carly! I've been in awe of what Wildlife Drones is doing, but as you say my work at the moment is focussed on existing GPS units rather than telemetry for tracking. I'll still reach out & ask though. Thanks for your help! :)
16 November 2022 10:55am
Hi Kim! Thanks for sharing, this is really interesting! I'll check out the website & see what I can find out about the mechanics of the device. Thanks again!
21 November 2022 5:25pm
Hey Sol,
The only way for you to collect information from a GPS tag attached to a FAD is if that tag transmits that data to the drone. Unfortunately most receiver packages are a bit too large for hobbyist-style drones (from what I've seen).
Depending on the range/distance from shore, you might be able to have a shore-based receiver system?
Tech and Biodiversity Conference, London
15 November 2022 2:07pm
Tech to Track: Harnessing thepotential of spatial data & digital technologies to prioritise nature and climate action
28 October 2022 10:14am
ConservationAI
20 October 2022 2:41pm
20 October 2022 7:32pm
Out of curiosity, what are the similarities/differences between your platform and other image classification ones such as Wildlife Insights, WildID, ZambaCloud? I don't mean that in like a "what's best" way, just would be great to better understand the the details so that people can assess what to try for their specific use cases & applications!
It would be great to have a comparative specs sheet of sorts! Peter Gyurov started something like that: https://www.notion.so/Camera-Trap-Pipeline-Solution-Comparison-2eac80825c4941b0b2b5fad3daea1cc3. Would be great to add ConservationAI to this list!
Conservation Technology Intern (Vietnam)

19 October 2022 9:22am
Rainforest SigFox available for use
26 August 2022 6:09pm
26 September 2022 10:20pm
Hi Roland,
This is really amazing, great to hear about your set-up! I'm just wondering what the overall cost was to set up this system? Just thinking in terms of setting up something similar in other parks and what they should expect with regard to price. Would also be great to hear about the overall effort, e.g., hours/team members required. It would be great to have this act as a blueprint for other organizations/research stations wishing to deploy a similar system within their respective national parks/areas/etc.!
10 October 2022 8:33am
Hi Rolland,
Interested too, but why did you choose SigFox (a private network) rather than LoRa (open network)?
Sigfox currently has some financial troubles that, don't know what it will become in the long term.
18 October 2022 11:55am
Hi Everyone,
We chose sigfox becuase it seems to have better range and is plug-play, whereas LoRa requires more custom programming and updating. Getting a gateway cost us $2000 for a year's lease + deposit. We covered solar power. There are also some 'minigateways' you can purchase but I don't know how they compare in range (plan to test). So far we are happy with the performance, in that it has worked consistency with no outages (once we stabilized the power supply). I think the annual costs are about $10 per tag. We are working on a paper that will describe this in more detail. So far just using for tracking tags but also looking at a trap sensor.
cheers
Roland
Using NFTs for Charity
10 October 2022 3:09pm
Connecting the Dots: A discussion on Private and Public Partnership and driving impact for our world
10 October 2022 12:32pm
16 January 2023 2:57pm
Hi!
Rainforest Connection is currently in the process of UX/UI research for our audio data analysis platform, Arbimon. I'll forward this thread to our lead on this.
The folks at ConservationX might have some insights as well with testing of the NABIT and Sentinel.