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Header image: Laura Kloepper, Ph.D.

discussion

wildtech.mongabay.com is a great resource

I just wanted to plug Monga Bay's WildTech area of their site. It's a great resource for information highly relevant to the topics in this forum. Just today there was a...

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Thanks for the link - yes, I agree Mongabay's WildTech areas is a great resource for anyone interested in keeping up to date with the latest conservation tech news. Sue Palminteri's article is facinating and is definitely worth a read. The video showing the daily movement of elephants is particularly interesting (see the screenshot below) - it was a case study Katherine Chou of Google.org spoke about in her Fuller Symposium address as well. That they're getting close to real time monitoring is very exciting - it would have been amazing to have that capacity in other projects I've been involved with. 

The key take-aways you highlight match a lot of what came up in the Fuller Symposium and other discussions about HWC. The consensus from Wired in the Wild - Can technology save the planet?   was that no, it cannot. It is simply a very useful tool that, when used appropriately, could have significant impacts in the challenges conservation is attempting to tackle. Numerous speakers drove home the point that technology is not and should not be the starting point; we need to be technology agnostic. We must start by understanding the challenge and then looking at what (if any) technology might help to address it given the circumstances. 

The Elephants and Bees approach is a great example of why we need to start with challenge rather than the technology. Sometimes the best solution is the low tech approach. Nilanga Jayasinghe highlighed this in her thought piece about HWC - giving a similar example of work WWF is doing in Nepal: 

'During a recent visit to Nepal, I visited rural villages where wild elephants often raid rice fields during harvest season. The communities had installed electric fences but this tool didn't always succeed on its own. Elephants are smart and persistent: they had learned to break the fence’s electric current, and then the fence itself, by using trees to push over the supporting stakes. To solve this problem, we worked with farmers to dig fish ponds in front of the fences as an additional obstacle. Adding an additional barrier not only made it harder for the elephants to get into the fields, it also gave the communities more time to respond and drive elephants away. This simple solution has not only reduced elephant raids, but has also improved local livelihoods from the sale of the fish grown in the ponds.' 

 

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article

Gaming for Good: Minecraft and Quiz Up

Peter Jacobs
Can games have real world impacts on issues like the illegal wildlife trade? In part two of his case study for the Gaming for Conservation Group, Peter Jacobs discusses United for Wildlife's efforts to engage young...

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discussion

Building tech solutions from the ground up

It's great to see this Group given the tendency to focus on 'new' and 'innovative' technologies, and the challenges and ethics that this focus brings...

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Thanks for contributing these thoughts and resources, Ken. Great to see you in the WILDLABS.NET community!

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Technology for Traceability

Daniel Brizuela
Traceability (knowing where products come from and how they are made) is a foundational pre-cursor for many sustainability interventions. While many tools have been developed to offer high-level insight about the...

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Gaming for Good: Runescape and Angry Birds

Peter Jacobs
Can games raise awareness of conservation issues like the illegal wildlife trade? In part one of his case study for the Gaming for Conservation Group, Peter Jacobs discusses how United for Wildlife is partnering with...

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article

From Data Collection to Decisions

Tim Wilkinson
The speed at which data travels from the point of collection to a format which is understandable and useful for decision makers can be of critical importance. In this case study, Tim Wilkinson discusses a powerful suite...

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article

What is eDNA?

Sarah Kuppert
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is nuclear or mitochondrial DNA that is released from an organism into the environment. Sources of eDNA include secreted faeces, mucous, gametes, shed skin, hair and carcasses. In this article,...

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Technology to Combat Illegal Wildlife Trade

Rachel Kramer
The illegal trade in wildlife, seafood and timber is emptying our planet’s savannas, oceans and forests. Basic and advanced technology tools can be applied to combat wildlife crime, but these won’t save species unless...

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article

How can Technology Reduce Human-Wildlife Conflict?

Nilanga Jayasinghe
Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is when interactions between humans and wildlife lead to negative impact on both sides through fear, injuries, death, and loss of property or livelihoods. In this thought piece for the HWC...

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