Explore Conservation Ethics
In our recent panel episode of Tech Tutors, How do I use conservation tech ethically?, our presenters explored this important subject as they answered the following questions:
- Doug Clark: How do I use conservation tech ethically?
- Laure Joanny: How do I build on existing tools and procedures to use conservation tech ethically?
- Trishant Simlai: How does conservation tech cause harm?
- Koustubh Sharma: How do I manage ethical issues in the field?
Click each presenter's name to view the recording from their individual lecture portion of the panel.
Louis Cohen also created a conservation tech ethics beginner's guide for Tech Tutors participants, available for download here.
And in addition to the many engaging resources shared by participants during this episode, our presenters also provided several papers and other resources to help you explore the many aspects of conservation technology ethics:
- Research Paper (Doug Clark, Chris Sandbrook, Trishant Simlai): Principles for the socially responsible use of conservation monitoring technology and data
- Research Paper (Koustubh Sharma): Conservation and people: Towards an ethical code of conduct for the use of camera traps in wildlife research
- Keynote Presentation (Trishant Simlai): Conservation surveillance as a means for state repression? Psychological terror and the spectacles of fear through the use of drones in India
- The First Nations Principles of OCAP
- Doug Clark: Engaging Northern expertise strengthens ecological science
- Research Paper (Chris Sandbrook): The social implications of using drones for biodiversity conservation
If you're interested in discussing the ethics of conservation technology, you can join the WILDLABS forum dedicated to ethics, and connect with these panelists in this episode's Tech Tutors thread!
- @TaliaSpeaker
- | She/her
WILDLABS & World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
I'm the WILDLABS Research Specialist at WWF-US
- 12 Resources
- 55 Discussions
- 24 Groups
curator at Movebank (movebank.org)
- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- @jcaris
- | hi/him
Smith College & Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University
Senior Drone Data Scientist, Tufts University; Former Director of the Spatial Analysis Lab at Smith College. Teaching, learning, and collaborating with brilliant students & faculty
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 9 Groups
- @ZoeDagan
- | She/her
I'm Zoe, an ecologist at the intersection of SaaS, conservation, and community science. I build programs and advance projects that accelerate solutions to our most urgent climate and conservation challenges.
- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 10 Groups
2023 Bachelor Degree Graduate from the College of African Wildlife Management, Mweka.
- 0 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 14 Groups
- @StephODonnell
- | She / Her
WILDLABS & Fauna & Flora
I'm the Executive Manager at WILDLABS.
- 152 Resources
- 665 Discussions
- 30 Groups
Sustainability Manager for CERES Tag LTD. An animal health company; animal monitoring, conservation, & anti-poaching/ rural crime. Wildlife, livestock, equine & companion. #CeresTrace #CeresWild #CeresRanch
- 2 Resources
- 19 Discussions
- 24 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 17 Groups
- @MattyD797
- | He/Him
PhD Student | Cornell University | Smithsonian Institution; My focus is in computational ecology within fishery acoustics
- 0 Resources
- 10 Discussions
- 12 Groups
University of Adelaide
- 0 Resources
- 10 Discussions
- 17 Groups
Allen Institute for AI
Communications for EarthRanger and Skylight
- 7 Resources
- 5 Discussions
- 10 Groups
Asst. Prof @ MIT with research at the intersection of computer vision, biodiversity monitoring, conservation, and sustainability.
- 2 Resources
- 14 Discussions
- 5 Groups
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event
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi Luciano,Thank you for joining in in the discussion!I really love your perspectives on this. It is exciting to learn that I am not all alone in this. You know, at one point you... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
Hi everyone! My name is Leah Govia and I am a PhD candidate at the University of Guelph, Canada. My research explores what people... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech, Conservation Tech Training and Education, AI for Conservation | 3 months 1 week ago | |
Fire detection is a sort of broad idea. Usually people detect the products of fire, and most often this is smoke.Many home fire detectors in the US use a radioactive source... |
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Community Base, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Protected Area Management Tools, Sensors, Wildlife Crime | 3 months 4 weeks ago | |
Hi from Mozambique, I am new to this group. Looking to connect on ethics protocols - are there any out there? Are there... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech | 4 months ago | |
Hi folks! Happy 2024 and thanks in advance for your patience in case I over-used tags. If you’re using any form of natural language... |
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AI for Conservation, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Early Career, East Africa Community, Emerging Tech, Ending Wildlife Trafficking Online, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Software and Mobile Apps, Wildlife Crime, Women in Conservation Tech Programme (WiCT) | 4 months 1 week ago | |
Thank you Stefan! Will follow up with your email shortly. |
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Acoustics, Emerging Tech, Ethics of Conservation Tech | 5 months ago | |
Hi Emma, In your new project, if you have interest in a direct to satellite platform perspective, you can contact me on [email protected] Would be interested to see your outcomes... |
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Emerging Tech, Ethics of Conservation Tech | 7 months 3 weeks ago | |
Hello all! Bluspark is a plateform that allows natural area managers such as natural parks or reserves to optimize their day to day... |
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Citizen Science, Community Base, Connectivity, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Protected Area Management Tools, Software and Mobile Apps | 1 year 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 year 5 months ago | |
Hi all, one of the 8 MozFest 2023 spaces is 'Tech & Biodiversity', and the organisers seek input for an event on the intersection of... |
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AI for Conservation, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 5 months ago | |
Fwiw, GBIF published guidance on this topic late last year: Chapman AD (2020) Current Best Practices for Generalizing Sensitive Species Occurrence Data. Copenhagen: GBIF... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech | 2 years 8 months ago | |
Hi everyone, We're half an hour away from our special Ethics panel episode today at 11 AM ET / 4 PM BST, where... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech, Camera Traps | 2 years 9 months ago |
Ethics in conservation
15 March 2024 8:53am
5 April 2024 8:19am
Hi Luciano,
Thank you for joining in in the discussion!
I really love your perspectives on this. It is exciting to learn that I am not all alone in this. You know, at one point you think that some of these things are because you are not effectively doing your work, but then it is just how the system works. I am glad I figured it out. My main concern was how do I really get my data, remain safe from what seems to be an intricate, closely guarded practice and also protect my study participants and their communities from unintentional exposure to the securities. Through the process, I have gained lots of experience in navigating ethics in conservation, especially when the topic in question is illegal.
Exploring an ethical reflection tool for animal-focused tech (Survey)
13 February 2024 8:22pm
How are Outdoor Fire Detection Systems Adapted for Small Forest Areas, Considering the Predominance of Indoor Fire Detectors?
8 January 2024 4:27pm
22 January 2024 6:35pm
Fire detection is a sort of broad idea. Usually people detect the products of fire, and most often this is smoke.
Many home fire detectors in the US use a radioactive source and measure the absorption of the radiation by the air. More smoke means more absorption.
For outdoor fire detection, PM2.5 can be a very good smoke proxy, and outdoor PM2.5 sensing is pretty accessible.
This one is very popular in my area.
Ethics in Conservation out there?
16 January 2024 9:12am
Presentation opportunity: Text analysis for conservation (NACCB 2024)
8 January 2024 4:05pm
Call for Interview Subjects: Conservation Bioacoustics Methods
14 December 2023 8:47pm
15 December 2023 12:19pm
Happy to help Samuel, will send a message
15 December 2023 3:46pm
I'd love to!
16 December 2023 9:43am
Thank you Stefan! Will follow up with your email shortly.
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AWMS Conference 2023
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9 October 2023 5:04pm
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Looking for advice around building a survey to develop guidance & prioritize tech development to meet ranger/First Nations' needs in Australia.
19 September 2023 3:08am
21 September 2023 4:07am
Hey Akiba, please get in contact with me about this on [email protected]. We are looking on ways to collab in this area too. Especially in developing training resources!
21 September 2023 4:09am
Thanks Steph, would love to chat more about how you went about setting up the surveys themselves and whether you were able to reach any Indigenous/Ranger/First Nations groups across the Country. Please email me @ [email protected]
25 September 2023 9:34pm
Hi Emma, In your new project, if you have interest in a direct to satellite platform perspective, you can contact me on [email protected] Would be interested to see your outcomes and happy to have a chat if we can assist
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30 January 2023 10:27am
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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.
Live Q&A Discussion on Ceres Tag: An animal monitoring Solution! | WILDLABS
Hey Everyone,Are you ready for this next Live Q&A Session? If you're looking for an effective animal monitoring solution, you might want to Join us here in a few minutes at 9am EAT|4pm AEST where Lewis Frost, COO of Ceres Tag, will help us unpack the IoT devices they have for animal monitoring.In this session, Lewis will take us through the features of Ceres Tag, some of their interesting projects so far, some models on animal monitoring, factors to consider when choosing an animal monitoring tag, and much more! A few things you need to know about the Live Q&A session:The session will be moderated, but you can ask questions during and after the session e.g. If you need clarification on a question/answer, you are free to ask. To ask a question that is linked to a specific answer, kindly always press the ‘Reply to @Frostl007' button, type in your question then save to post it.To ensure a proper flow of the discussion, kindly be sure to use the 'Reply to @Frostl007' Before moving to each next question, we will give a ~3 minute window to allow you to ask any questions you have, but if you miss that window, you are totally okay asking the question afterwards.If you have any trouble viewing the questions or replies, please try and Refresh the page If you are present in this session and don’t have any comments, we’d be very happy to see you react using an emoji so that we know you are following through the session! I'm really looking forward to an amazing discussion!Thank you,Netty.
wildlabsnet
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:
Seismic savanna: machine learning for classifying wildlife and behaviours using ground‐based vibration field recordings
Our planet is facing its sixth mass extinction, with hundreds of species disappearing largely because of human activity. To mitigate this existential threat of biodiversity loss, we must monitor and ...
ZSL PublicationsCheers,
Lars
MozFest 2023 call for proposals on Tech & Biodiversity
22 November 2022 11:10am
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22 July 2022 3:36am
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1 June 2022 4:02pm
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31 May 2022 2:58pm
Data privacy for at-risk species
6 August 2021 5:38am
27 August 2021 3:49pm
If you haven't read them, these 2 papers offer propose decision-making frameworks for sensitive animal occurrence data:
Tulloch AIT, Auerbach N, Avery-Gomm S, Bayraktarov E, Butt N, Dickman CR, Ehmke G, Fisher DO, Grantham H, Holden MH, et al. 2018. A decision tree for assessing the risks and benefits of publishing biodiversity data. Nature Ecol. Evol. 2: 1209-1217. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0608-1
Lennox RJ, Harcourt R, Bennett JR, Davies A, Ford AT, Frey RM, Hayward MW, Hussey NE, Iverson SJ, Kays R. 2020. A novel framework to protect animal data in a world of ecosurveillance. BioScience 70(6): 468–476. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa035
The Research Data Alliance has 2 relevant interest groups:
Sensitive Data IG: This is just getting started.
Data Policy Standardization and Implementation IG: For those publishing results, this group is working on advising more consistent data-access policies. In the paper below resulting from this group's work, they give some general suggestions for defining exceptions to open data policies that include sensitive species data:
Hrynaszkiewicz I, Simons N, Hussain A, Grant R, Goudie S. 2020. Developing a research data policy framework for all journals and publishers. Data Science Journal 19(1): 5. http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-005
If others know of relevant resources please share!
10 September 2021 5:42pm
Our team was just talking about this as well. We work in bioacoustics, so not as complex as the camera trap strategies described in the publication.
Strategy we landed on was to automatically round geo coordinates to map an approx location for species presence.
We welcome thoughts/opinions/ideas on this important topic for our sensitive species in Nepal, Bolivia, and US!
14 September 2021 10:50am
Fwiw, GBIF published guidance on this topic late last year:
Chapman AD (2020) Current Best Practices for Generalizing Sensitive Species Occurrence Data. Copenhagen: GBIF Secretariat. https://doi.org/10.15468/doc-5jp4-5g10.
3 April 2024 4:38pm
Hi Sherril,
I can't believe this was posted almost a month ago. And more surprising that there are no comments about it yet.
That experience you had is one of the kind, because most people in conservation don't get to deal with ethics and moral issues in the front line that often. It's just because most people do desk work. Including managing directors of projects deployed in remote places. I can relate your experience to any field, I would say it's almost a human behavior classics. I understand it can be frustrating and also a lonely journey. Myself I had experience a lot of that in the last years. To a point that I was almost quitting doing my best for conservation, I was burnt out for seeing that the reality was a very different picture from the marketing about it. But I feel fortunate that I have been observing these realities in the sector first-hand for long time now. And because I did it all independently and self funded I can speak my mind about it. Which there are not many people with that freedom I found out.
You talk about illegal practices, in countries where corruption seems more "brutal", for governments and organizations the fact that something is illegal can be pretty relative concept. And methods follow short when that is the case. Many times I observed apparent combat of poaching activities, but after years of observation and doing my own research it was clear that the local governments were pretty aware of illegal activities and just not being honest enough to address them. Mainly because the donors are far away, way removed from the realities in the front line, so the remoteness of some places allows for a very flexible understanding of ethics in some cases.
Your experience is very valuable, I'm glad to hear that you got the permits at the end. And good luck with your research, remember to write, record and share your experiences. There is a lot of people in the same situation. Stay independent, stay free, share your knowledge.
Best, Luciano
nowforwildlife.org