Conservation technology is already transforming our understanding of climate change's impacts on key environments and species around the world, allowing us to monitor populations and their changing ranges, observe habitat destruction and events like coral bleaching over time, and study the aftermath of major climate disasters like bushfires.
Because climate change is a global challenge shared by all of us, with no species, habitat, or continent completely untouched by its impacts, it's more important than ever to unite the conservation tech users and makers who are already gathering critical data and forming innovative ideas to help us meet these challenges.
Whatever conservation technology you work with, and whatever your expertise may be, there is a place for you in the fight against climate change. This group is a place to brainstorm and collaborate, share experiences and commiserate about the challenges ahead, find reasons to be optimistic about technology's role in this fight, and hopefully spark ideas that can make a positive impact for the species and habitats that we protect.
Wondering how to get started in this group? Here are some examples of topics to kick things off:
- Do you have a case study or project update related to climate change impacts? (For example, have your study species' migratory patterns changed because of changing weather patterns? Did your Audiomoths or camera traps capture data on a climate-driven disaster? Have challenges like melting sea ice altered your research timelines or made it more difficult to study your species?)
- Do you have a question about how your expertise could fit into innovating climate change solutions? Or do you have data to share that could help someone else understand climate change impacts or address challenges?
- Do you have an innovative idea that could help combat climate change, but need input or skills from other members with expertise in different areas or with different tools?
- Do you have a great resource to share that could help other members learn something new about climate change technology?
This group is new to the WILDLABS platform and set to grow - we can't wait to see what resources you'll share, what projects you'll start, and what solutions you'll find together!
conservation and climate change research/tech at NORTHERN RANGELANDS TRUST
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Data Scientist
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WILDLABS
I'm the Community Manager at WILDLABS
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Junior machine learning engineer with a background in data science and physics
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I am a behavioural ecologist using animal tracking technologies to investigate the impacts of anthropogenic change
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A conservation Biologist, supporting a project securing suitable habitat for rhino conservation.
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University of California
retired Field Station Director, very early adopter of conservation technologies
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Research Assistant at the University of Pittsburgh
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A student learning on proper application of science and technology in conservation for current and future benefits with minimum negative impacts and awesome if no negative impacts.
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31 May 2022
Careers
Climate X are seeking an enthusiastic and capable climate scientist to quantify climate change-related risks and physical impacts of tropical and temperate storms.
10 May 2022
Check out this round-up of three of the latest conservation tech studies and news. See more conservation tech news by subscribing to our bi-monthly digest.
24 March 2022
The Biodiversity on a Changing Planet Program by National Science Foundation invites submissions of interdisciplinary proposals addressing grand challenges in biodiversity science within the context of unprecedented...
16 December 2021
In pursuit of saving the Monarch butterflies, Carlo Mondavi- pioneer of the Monarch challenge- was inspired to develop the world's first fully electric smart tractor tractor with co-founder and Chief Executive, Praveen...
29 November 2021
Article
This research article explores the challenges of achieving environmental data justice, with the continued advancement in technology and growth in available data. The author emphasises the necessity to prioritise ...
26 November 2021
In this article, Swarm Technologies give a detailed analysis of the tradeoffs between the most common IoT connectivity solutions to improving food production, combating climate change, optimizing supply chains and many...
19 November 2021
This article outlines how acoustic monitoring of bird species provides a means to study ecosystems with minimal disturbance and over wide areas. Birds are excellent indicator species, therefore, monitoring their trend...
21 October 2021
Funding
Measuring carbon in nature helps us understand and enhance the role ecosystems play in mitigating climate change. WWF Canada’s second technology challenge – Nature x Carbon – is making it easier to identify carbon-rich...
1 July 2021
The latest Technology Quarterly special issue from The Economist highlights the theme of protecting biodiversity, and covers topics including climate change's impacts on biodiversity, modelling ecosystems, using...
17 June 2021
MIT Solve is seeking solutions for technology-based solutions that help communities restore, sustain, and benefit from resilient ecosystems. Submissions close on June 16, 2021. Read more about the challenge's...
8 June 2021
Our friends at Edge Impulse are proud to announce that they have become the first AI company to join 1% for the Planet, pledging to donate 1% of revenue to support nonprofit organizations focused on the environment. To...
15 January 2021
July 2022
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More info on the CCAI flyer here (doc also attached to the post)."From... |
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Climate Change | 1 day 14 hours ago | |
Most of what I have done has been in a couple areas: * Sensor re-use and repair, to the extent possible. This is an area where, especially with acoustic sensors, replaceable... |
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Climate Change | 2 days 7 hours ago | |
Forest fire and the resulting haze has become an almost annual disaster in Indonesia and Malaysia. The haze that covered much of Southeast Asia in 2015 was the worst in recent... |
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Climate Change | 3 years 8 months ago |
Climate Change AI Summer School - call for mentors
Current and future steps toward sustainability in conservation tech?
28 June 2022 at 06:24pm
29 June 2022 at 05:28am
At Ceres Tag, it is important that we are sustainable and have little to no impact on the environment.
- The battery life of the tag is 10 years and is recharged via solar panels. One battery for the life of the tag.
- No off-animal re-charging required
- No additional batteries
- The only commercial, direct to satellite, animal monitoring ear tag
- No onsite infrastructure to set up or take down
- No towers or other infrastructure such as receiving stations, radios or large power systems required
- Biosecurity and pandemic safe.
- Ceres Tag staff do not need to visit sites where the tags will be applied
- Our packaging is recyclable.
- Our e-commerce platform, allows for direct purchase from cerestag.com.
- Which means, direct to manufacture order with little or no paperwork for ordering.
By Ceres Tag designing the systems and tags in this manner, It will also allow for your carbon footprint to be minimal on the ground once you apply the tags. You can be anywhere in the world and view animals, without being in the same location
29 June 2022 at 08:42pm
Most of what I have done has been in a couple areas:
* Sensor re-use and repair, to the extent possible. This is an area where, especially with acoustic sensors, replaceable microphones have been a godsend that have really enabled us to extend the lifespan of older units
* Rechargeable batteries for some deployments. These don't travel well and don't have quite the life of alkalines, but for our sensors that are easily serviced (local to us) we use rechargeables to minimize waste. This was originally a long-term cost-cutting measure but has also let us minimize e-waste as a convenient side effect.
More generally, in my thinking about climate, it's worth it to emphasize that the carbon budget isn't zero, it's just finite. There are carbon-intensive activities that are sometimes worth it, it's mostly a question of how do we evaluate that. In the case of conservation tech work, if we can use our knowledge and skills to, for example, minimize bird or bat take from renewable energy in ways that improve generation uptime or reduce community backlash, that can more than offset (in conceptual, if not concrete terms--I haven't done the math on this yet) a few higher-emissions research or conservation activities. Of course, we should work to minimize our impact however we can, but our sector is such a very small portion of the global economy and so our contribution to the broader decarbonization push is likely a better use of our collective time and resources.
Join Seeed’s “IoT Into the Wild Contest for Sustainable Planet 2022” on Hackster to Get 100 Free Hardware and to Win $14,000+ in Prizes!!!
14 June 2022 at 09:14am
Climate scientist: Storms

10 May 2022 at 10:00am
News: The Latest in Conservation Tech (March 24)

24 March 2022 at 12:00am
Biodiversity on a Changing Planet (BoCP) Funding

16 December 2021 at 12:00am
The race to save California's rarest butterflies

29 November 2021 at 12:00am
Environmental Data Justice

26 November 2021 at 12:00am
Choosing the right IoT connectivity solution

19 November 2021 at 12:00am
Deploying 'Ears' in Ecosystems: Using Bioacoustics to Monitor Bird Species

21 October 2021 at 12:00am
Challenge: Nature x Carbon

1 July 2021 at 12:00am
WILDLABS Featured: The Economist Technology Quarterly

17 June 2021 at 12:00am
Challenge: MIT Solve Resilient Ecosystems

8 June 2021 at 12:00am
28 June 2022 at 11:22pm
I bring all used batteries I use for passive acoustic monitoring in Madagascar back with me to the US, as there is no way to properly recycle lithium/alkaline/etc batteries in-country there. It's a pain though, because they are so heavy and often leaves me with either a 35lb carry-on or a $150 extra-bag fee. I've had trouble even in America trying to figure out where to recycle different kinds, since some places only take NiMH, or some only take alkaline, and the requirements for e.g., packaging if you want to mail them to a recycling center are different (plus this is expensive too). And especially in rural areas, there may not be a place to recycle electronic waste for miles. I currently live in NYC but when I have lived in rural areas in the past, I've had to drive legit like 40 miles to drop off used batteries at the nearest Staples or whatever.
Earth911 and Call2Recycle have online search functions that in theory identify places to recycle different types of batteries but I have found them to be clunky, outdated in some cases, and confusing.
In terms of the recorders themselves, I've kept them with local collaborators & research stations in Mada for future use, and have a sort of informal "rent" program for those who want to use them in the future. It's really difficult shipping anything to Madagascar so you really kind of have to personally courier equipment in (which increases carbon footprint in & of itself). So now that I've got some equipment there, I want to keep it all there to avoid these roadblocks for others in the future.
My carbon footprint is honestly so much lower when I'm the in field that it kind of evens out the plane travel over. Obviously in a perfect world this wouldn't be necessary, but we've found that in-person training is absolutely necessary and not easily replaceable by anything virtual. But, I exclusively use local field techs/guides, so it's just me flying over rather than bringing RAs, etc. from the US. No perfect solution though, everyone is bound by different circumstances, logistical constraints, budgets, etc.
I know this has been discussed in the past in different WILDLABS ventures, but a "marketplace" of some kind where people could trade/rent/etc equipment I think would be super useful. Even just to post that you have a trail cam or GPS tag or whatever that isn't working and you don't know how to fix it but are willing to ship it off to someone if they want to tinker (I personally have 2 cameras that aren't working but I don't have the time/knowledge/etc to trouble shoot myself, and would gladly give them to someone else). I feel like there have been increasingly a lot of posts here and elsewhere about renting equipment especially with all the supply chain issues during covid (& on going), especially for Audiomoths.
Ok I think I'm done word vomiting now.... lol excited to continue these conversations!