The Challenge
Technology offers enormous potential in securing a sustainable future for the planet. However, the conservation community faces a significant challenge in making sure these technologies are affordable and available to users around the world, and ensuring that people have the knowledge to use these tools properly. Even technologies that have already demonstrated their worth in the field must be adapted to specific social and environmental conditions, and require local buy-in and ownership.
Ensuring that technologies can be adopted more widely requires resources, training and testing on the ground - often in challenging situations. However, too often the data and lessons learned from research and field tests are kept within NGOs, academic institutions or the private sector, and rarely shared effectively through peer-reviewed publications and media articles. Predictably, this leads to unnecessary duplication of effort as new technology users encounter the same challenges faced by others.
A New Community
WILDLABS.NET is working to change this. United for Wildlife, with support from Google.org and ARM, launched this collaborative initiative to encourage and enable more open sharing of information about the use of technology to fight against illegal wildlife trade and the myriad other pressing issues facing our planet. It brings together a community of conservationists, technologists, engineers, data scientists, entrepreneurs and thought leaders. Community members share problems and successes, give and receive guidance, and access the resources needed to discover or collaboratively create technology to solve big conservation challenges.
This online platform is enabling conservationists (including those based in the field) to connect directly with technology experts, explain the challenges they face and source technological solutions to these problems. Connecting with users on the ground will also help technologists test their ideas in field environments, and adapt them to ensure maximum possible impact.
Launched at the WWF Fuller Science Symposium in November 2015, the WILDLABS.NET community grew rapidly to over 1300 global members by the end of 2016. Members have been sharing ideas on a range of topics including new predator deterrents, using seismic detection technology to prevent human-wildlife conflict, and tackling illegal logging with technology. They are collaboratively developing new hardware prototypes, including a new open-source acoustic monitoring device for tracking wolves and an automatic elephant detector using machine learning. They have also been crowd-sourcing answers to questions about low-cost tracking tags, integrating wildlife tracking with other technologies, self-powered camera traps, all the while sharing interesting conservation tech news and projects.
Fundamentally, a tool is only as valuable as its user. Meeting conservation goals requires sustained support for rangers, resource managers and community-based conservation activities. Without human resources behind them, not even the most sophisticated technologies can save species. With WILDLABS.NET, we put knowledge and connections in the hands of the people working on the front line of conservation.
To join the community, register here.
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