Dear all,

I write from the montane cloud rainforest of the Torricelli Mountain range in Papua New Guinea. My name is James Wareing and having qualified as a solicitor in London last October, I am now the finance manager at the Tenkile Conservation Alliance (TCA). 

I am new to WildLabs and keen to explore whether any technological solutions can support our work here. I am busy exploring the discussions to date, but if anyone has an interest in collaborating then please feel to reach out. We use around 20 camera traps at a time, which collect three months' worth of data. A primary goal would be software that can sort and potentially analyse the images. I am also open to further suggestions, in particular for recording insect diversity, which is significantly under-analysed here. 

A bit about TCA. TCA has just celebrated its 20 year anniversary and was founded with the purpose of protecting two species of critically endangered tree kangaroos, who numbers were as low as 100 individuals each. Through a hunting moratorium and engagement with landowners numbers of both have fortunately recovered to around 300-400 each.

TCA works with the 50 rainforest villages in an area covering approximately 180,000 hectares of low to mid-montane rainforest. We employ 30 Research and Project officers as well as part-time rangers. Chief among their responsibilities is recording the biodiversity of the area, which they do with our recently developed app. You can find more information about this here: https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/new-app-transforms-data-gathering-for-wildlife-in-papua-new-guinea/ . Needless to say the biodiversity they have been recording here is remarkable. 

Should you require any more information, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Kind regards,

James Wareing

Finance Manager

Tenkile Conservation Alliance

www.tenkile.com