With experts across the WILDLABS community working with every type of technology and in every imaginable environment, our platform is a great place to find advice and resources on choosing what tools are right for your conservation project. Whether you're in the market to try a new camera trap model, want to experiment with drones for the first time, or need help weighing the pros and cons of data management tools, there's someone in the WILDLABS community who can help you make a smart and informed choice!
The Community Base is our general gathering group. It's the place where we cover more general, big picture topics in conservation technology - ones that don't fit neatly into our other groups. If you don't know where to post something, just post it in this group. Our moderators will move it if needed!
At our Community Base, you'll find updates from the WILDLABS team on upcoming events and opportunities, and have the chance to shape our programs and platform with your opinions. And most importantly, the Community Base is also home to our Welcome to WILDLABS thread, the best place to introduce yourself to us and the community. Stop by and tell us what you're working on!
Whether you're new to WILDLABS and want to know where to begin, or you're a longtime member looking for a handy bank of resources, our Getting Started on WILDLABS thread will be your one-stop guide to getting the most out of our platform.
Want to find out more about WILDLABS? Check out our recent community call:
Header image: Ana Verahrami/Elephant Listening Project
Group curators
- @StephODonnell
- | She / Her
WILDLABS & Fauna & Flora
I'm the Executive Manager at WILDLABS.
- 152 Resources
- 665 Discussions
- 30 Groups
- @TaliaSpeaker
- | She/her
WILDLABS & World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
I'm the WILDLABS Research Specialist at WWF-US
- 12 Resources
- 54 Discussions
- 24 Groups
- @EllieW
- | She/Her
- 64 Resources
- 124 Discussions
- 14 Groups
Wildlife Drones
Wildlife Drones has developed the world’s most innovative radio animal-tracking system using drones so you can track your radio-tagged animals like never before.
- 11 Resources
- 8 Discussions
- 32 Groups
Technologist and Visual storyteller focusing on social, conservations issues.
- 0 Resources
- 31 Discussions
- 16 Groups
- @Hansa
- | He/Him
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- 2 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 2 Groups
Heading up comms for a conservation agency based in the United Arab Emirates
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @Edonga
- | He/His
Paul Edonga is from the Indigenous Pastoralist Tribes of Northern Kenya. A seasoned Leader in indigenous-led conservation of Endangered Beisa Oryx, African Small Antelopes their habitats & Dryland Forests. He's the founder of Save Beisa Oryx Community Resilience Trust-SBOC
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
Purdue University
- 8 Resources
- 48 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @Angele
- | She/Her
Working with IPLCs and applying data/geospatial tools for a conservation/carbon forestry project in the Philippines 🌿
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 8 Groups
Neuroscientist & engineer transitioning to conservation tech. I have experience working with large imaging datasets, pose estimation and positional tracking, and machine learning. Looking to get involved with GIS, remote sensing, and AI for conservation.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 17 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 16 Groups
- @bioNathan
- | he/him
Innovation Design Engineer studying at MSc + MA level. Previously a Robotics engineer with specialisms in remote sensing, control systems & electronics design. Transitioning to ecological contexts. I use bioinspiration to inform tech design, both product & infrastructure.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 8 Groups
Tech 4 Conservation
President, Tech 4 Conservation
- 0 Resources
- 6 Discussions
- 18 Groups
We're looking for nominations (or self-nominations) for an Executive Director for Mechanism Design for Social Good, an academic research initiative focused on computational solutions to issues impacting historically...
25 July 2023
It's Day One of the #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge! Let's see the highlights from our conservation tech community so far.
25 July 2023
To celebrate the start of our 2023 #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge on July 24th, we’re jumping back in time this week to relive past challenges and see how far we’ve come in conservation tech.
23 July 2023
This course was developed by Code for Africa in partnership with the BBC Media Action with funding from the EU under the Confer project in association with Norcap and ICPAC to help communicate and report about climate...
21 July 2023
Funding
Accelerating nature for climate. PLANETech is on a mission to discover revolutionary nature tech solutions to meet Climate, Nature and Land Degradation Targets.
21 July 2023
To celebrate the start of our 2023 #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge on July 24th, we’re jumping back in time this week to relive past challenges and see how far we’ve come in conservation tech.
20 July 2023
To celebrate the start of our 2023 #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge on July 24th, we’re jumping back in time this week to relive past challenges and see how far we’ve come in conservation tech.
20 July 2023
To celebrate the start of our 2023 #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge on July 24th, we’re jumping back in time this week to relive past challenges and see how far we’ve come in conservation tech.
20 July 2023
To celebrate the start of our 2023 #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge on July 24th, we’re jumping back in time this week to relive past challenges and see how far we’ve come in conservation tech.
19 July 2023
To celebrate the start of our 2023 #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge on July 24th, we’re jumping back in time this week to relive past challenges and see how far we’ve come in conservation tech.
18 July 2023
Article
To celebrate the start of our 2023 #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge on July 24th, we’re jumping back in time this week to relive past challenges and see how far we’ve come in conservation tech.
17 July 2023
We are a team of ecologists and technologists who believe good business must be good for nature. We’re building an economy that puts nature and business in balance by incentivising the restoration of nature at scale.
7 July 2023
May 2024
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June 2024
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October 2024
July 2023
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi everyone,We’ve emerged into the genomic age and it is a powerful approach to back wildlife conservation. However, sometimes it can be tricky to become familiar with... |
+248
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Community Base | 3 days 18 hours ago | |
I noticed the site being annoyingly slow some time last week. Thank you for clearing that up, for finding the cause and solving the issue.I'm not claiming deep knowledge on AI,... |
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Community Base | 2 weeks 2 days ago | |
Hello Ms Esther👋Thank you for taking your time to reply to me with such helpful response.I'm interested in conservation technology such as camera traps, GIS and Remote sensing,... |
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Early Career, East Africa Community, Community Base | 3 weeks 3 days ago | |
Hi Soumya , Interested to know if you are pursuing distance education in ML while at your current job. I would love to hear more about your journey on course specifics... |
+12
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Community Base, Early Career | 3 weeks 6 days ago | |
Totally agree.Inititally sceptical until I saw Helena and Graeme were involved.MJ |
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Acoustics, Citizen Science, Community Base, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 3 weeks 6 days ago | |
Hi @Frank_van_der_Most,great point and I will address this in my little talk next week.Greetings from Austria,Robin |
+11
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Community Base | 4 weeks 1 day ago | |
I got assistance. super grateful! |
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Climate Change, Community Base, East Africa Community, Conservation Tech Training and Education | 4 weeks ago | |
Awesome, thanks for the summary! |
+8
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Protected Area Management Tools, Community Base | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
@Rob_Appleby follow these instructions to get your Sprout badge! |
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Community Base | 2 months ago | |
Hi Kevin and Kim, Apologies for the delayed response; however, we were unable to provide specific information until today. We aim to reach out to each applicant in the... |
+38
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Community Base | 2 months 2 weeks ago | |
Thanks @alexrood for creating this visual! |
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Community Base | 2 months 2 weeks ago | |
Hi Danilo. you seem very passionate about this initiative which is a good start.It is an interesting coincidence that I am starting another project for the coral reefs in the... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Biologging, Camera Traps, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Community Base, Connectivity, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Sensors, Software and Mobile Apps, Wildlife Crime | 3 months 2 weeks ago |
Equipment Swap Meet/Giveaways
17 April 2019 2:28pm
1 July 2022 7:48pm
Hi all!
Just wanted to drop in and share that we're having a lot of discussions around sustainability right now, and we're thinking about how the conservation tech community can recycle old tools in sustainable ways. Swaps and exchanges feel like they fit perfectly into that conversation!
If any of you would like to drop into this discussion thread on practical steps toward sustainability and share your experiences with swapping tools, we'd love to hear from you!
26 July 2022 6:40pm
Hi all doing some spring cleaning. Just pay shipping.
I have:
-20 new Taoglas FXUB63 Ultra Wide Band Antenna 698-3000MHz we don't need. The ones that come with Boron's.
-90 Phoenix Contact TERM BLK 4P SIDE ENT 5.08MM PCB
-45 Omron RELAY GEN PURPOSE SPST 10A 12V, G5LE-1A DC12
We have so much stuff we'll never use. Will post more as I sort through it. If you need something in particular let me know. Might get lucky.
If by chance someone knows where I could find some ATSAMD21G18A-MFT or similar let me know!
Introducing WILDBEAR Awardee Alyssa Bohart
22 July 2022 12:27am
Tech Tutors East Africa: Call for Topics and Speakers
19 July 2022 9:28am
19 July 2022 11:41am
Definitely second doing one on SMART! It's been asked about before a number of times in other virtual events so I think the need/want is for sure there.
19 July 2022 12:20pm
100%! Also heard many asking about SMART Connect & Mobile, and their integration with other software.
Thank you for your input :)
Call for Abstracts for #AGU22 Fall Meeting: Applications of Earth Observations for Addressing Environmental and Development Challenges in Africa
18 July 2022 6:43am
Conservation Data Coordinator
15 July 2022 11:02am
Writing Bootcamp: Ask the WILDLABS Editor
6 July 2022 8:29pm
7 July 2022 12:10am
Awesome! We were wondering about writing on WildLabs now that you can publish articles to specific topics. My writing skills are a bit rusty too. Looking forward to the article series :)
14 July 2022 3:11am
Thanks Akiba, hope you liked the series and found it helpful! Can't wait to see what you share! If you ever need someone to help brainstorm ideas on how to approach specific topics, drop in here anytime!
Service Designer
13 July 2022 9:05am
Writing Bootcamp: Shaping Your Story
7 July 2022 10:10pm
Writing Bootcamp: Questions for Writers
6 July 2022 10:47pm
4 October 2023 6:39pm
Knowing Nature: New conservation technologies & knowledge systems to support the SDGs and post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
5 July 2022 8:46pm
New Platform Help: Troubleshooting & bugs
6 May 2022 9:21am
5 July 2022 6:40am
I have had two this week. Is there a way to report/ block them?
Messages have started with "Hello Darling" so do not think they are conservation orientated
5 July 2022 9:39am
Okay great - thanks for flagging this. It's helpful to know it didn't just come to our team's accounts - we also got the same message and blocked the account immediately. Til now our spam filiters have working well blocking accounts like this at the registration stage, but we're going to change some things to prevent abuse of the DM system. We're having a meeting to finalise some decisions on it this morning - will report back after.
Thanks!
Steph
5 July 2022 11:28am
Quick report on what we're doing on the technical side:
First of all, so sorry that this has happened. We worked hard on spam prevention on the registration system and after lots of effort using many different methods, managed to cut that down to zero or almost zero. At least for automated "bot" accounts.
But the user account involved in this seems to have got by that and then used our bespoke messaging system to spam recently logged in users. From the facts that
- it targeted recently logged in users (who appear in that order on the member directory)
- the messages are spaced apart in time in a way that a robot would probably not do
I suspect this is a manual copy-paste spammer.
We're working on reporting tools and other ways to prevent this but for now we've changed the system so that messages from blocked users will no longer be shown in member inboxes.
Please continue to report spam issues to the WILDLABS team until we work out further solutions for reporting.
Any suggestions from other platforms you use on which reporting tools you find the most helpful will also be much appreciated. We'd love to fix this in a way that helps with any other platform abuse issues that might come up in the future as the community grows.
Writing Bootcamp: What content type fits my story?
1 July 2022 10:19pm
Friday Check In (+ Mid-year reflection prompts)
1 July 2022 11:32am
Announcing Our Upcoming Sustainability Series
30 June 2022 8:54pm
Developers, Makers, & Engineers: Recent Supply Chain Issues
6 April 2021 10:41pm
17 April 2021 3:33am
I haven't been affected, my quantities are small and they are all jellybean parts. nothing remotely exotic.
23 April 2021 6:19pm
Yes, I am also having supply problems lately, not so much of components as of plates or other materials that I have to receive from Japan (;-), Australia, China, ... My impression is that bottlenecks are occurring in some parts of the supply chain. I imagine that the COVID and the shutdown of the Suez Canal for days did not help ...
29 June 2022 11:08pm
Hi all!
Dropping back in to share that we're thinking about how supply chain issues tie into our upcoming series on conservation tech sustainability. We've started a Twitter thread about it here:
The ongoing supply chain crisis in conservation tech has made many tools and materials scarce, and revealed the fragility of our access to conservation tech tools and resources. But can sustainable materials and open source tools help us navigate future supply chain issues? pic.twitter.com/EX9mrtLbXu
— WILDLABS Community (@WILDLABSNET) June 29, 2022
Feel free to continue sharing your thoughts in this discussion thread as well - we'd love to hear more about how the supply chain issues have continued to impact you, as well as how your experiences have related to our questions about sustainability, whether positively or negatively!
New Conservation Tech Directory update
27 June 2022 4:45pm
Grants for vehicles
21 June 2022 5:10pm
21 June 2022 9:33pm
There was a previous Wildlabs thread on this - https://wildlabs.net/discussion/conservation-grants-field-vehicles but it didn't garner any comments unfortunately.
I'm not sure if IdeaWild allows for car repairs? The grants are for equipment specifically. That's a small grant anyways though ($1500) so you'd probably need something bigger it sounds like.
I don't know of any grants specifically funding this, but most people I know who have gotten vehicles have applied for bigger grants that they write a new vehicle into as a budget line item (e.g., WWF, WCS, CI, MBZ, national agencies like NSF).
22 June 2022 3:58pm
Hi Carly,
Thanks for digging up my previous thread (I couldn't find it). I guess I've been asking this question for a few years now!
I had also heard of grants from car companies but it seems they stopped doing this (or limit their support to areas around their factories, like Toyota).
Invitation to Silverstrand Capital's Biodiversity Accelerator+
17 June 2022 11:28am
18 June 2022 3:49am
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks for getting back! I have updated the link to our website, where we have our launch event recording and the application form for companies.
In short, we are looking for companies past ideation stage employing either nature tech and/or nature-based solutions. While this is a global call, we will prefer if the company is currently operating in or have intent to operate in South East Asia. We have more examples at our website but I will be happy to answer your questions if any.
Do follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/silverstrand-capital/ and feel free to share with your network as well! We do see biodiversity as a serious crisis to tackle and we want to empower founders that are mission-aligned with us.
Dean
20 June 2022 1:05pm
Hi Dean,
I love the sound of this accelerator, it's the sort of thing I'm looking to support through Cambridge Consultants' Tech for Good initiative. We're engineers, scientists and designers who could help with advice around building a first prototype of a new technology, or what it takes to get a technology to market quickly, just for example. Would you like to connect for an initial exploratory chat?
21 June 2022 2:49am
Hi Isobel,
Great to hear from you! I would love to learn more and connect so that I can discuss with the team further.
You can reach me here: [email protected] . Thank you so much for your interest!
Dean
What events/workshops are you looking forward to?
1 June 2022 12:12pm
6 June 2022 9:33am
Hi Steph,
Great to hear back. Yes, mostly working on forest conservation and fire in the West but also conservation finance (analog and automated platforms to leverage public/private funding) and remote sensing a fair bit. I need to get back to carnivores! How about you?
Best,
V
6 June 2022 3:49pm
Sounds great Stephanie, thanks! I think I'm going to go ahead and put a post in the main Acoustics group also, and then will use the instructions to link that post to the event calendar. Thanks again!
20 June 2022 11:25am
This is a great one! I will be attending virtually.
Though did not receive any feedback to the emails I sent them about issues registrating. Had to call them from Italy to get a response, was not fun -.-" ! But very excited about this event, hopefully everything runs smoothly for us attending virtually, although I'm a little discouraged.
Cheers :)
On the lookout for CAD/Microcontroller work!
17 June 2022 5:04pm
Friday check in - what have you been working on this week?
17 June 2022 9:17am
17 June 2022 10:42am
Alrighty, since I may as well participate in my own thing and I have thoughts about the tech4wildlife world this week..
It's been a very welcome calm week over with our team. It's been a really crazy nine months so it feels like this week has been the first time we've had a chance to do a big inhale.
I'm still so happy the new wildlabs platform is live out in the world and you all seem to be enjoying it - we've had 250+ new members join in the last few weeks, users are up 70% compared to this time last year and pageviews are up 160%. And we're seeing heaps of activity!
That pageview figure is particularly important for us for right now, as it means we're hitting that big goal of making all the great information sharing by our community easier to find and explore. As activity keeps scaling up, the challenge we're going to face will be about curation and making sure it's not just overwhelming. We have some tools, ways of configuring the site, different roles and new programmes ready to respond and help with that, but for now we're just happy you're all finding and starting to use the platform.
We are doing deployments every week to fix bugs, improve performance & launch new features. This week was a big one- our DM system went live, which has been the most requested feature. If you're curious, @FilipNest is providing an amusing deployment log here.
This week we've also been doing a big feature about our East Africa Community - @Netty_Cheruto took over all our socials (@wildlabsnet and WILDLABS Community) to share updates from the first workshop of our Women In Conservation Tech Programme: Kenya.
Building and sustaining #Tech4Wildlife capacity is key in ensuring impactful regional conservation efforts! This year, we are joined by 15 early career Kenyan women for our inaugural 6-month Women in Conservation Technology training Programme. Learn more:https://t.co/oL2gdgCzEg pic.twitter.com/fxT4U50MkX
— WILDLABS Community (@WILDLABSNET) June 14, 2022
Our East Africa Community is the first regional WILDLABS community. It is the first step in our plan to establish locally led regional communities to connect and support #tech4wildlife practitioners all over the globe.
Are you working in East Africa? Are you using conservation tech like #GIS @EarthRangerTech @AudioMoth @SMARTCnsvTools #Cameratraps #biologgers? The WILDLABS East Africa Community is built to support and connect you! Join our #tech4wildlife community today: https://t.co/IDihbz3jFW pic.twitter.com/SpP7ObJPaj
— WILDLABS Community (@WILDLABSNET) June 13, 2022
And finally, this week I've also spent a lot of time poking around various parts of the #tech4wildlife ecosystem. A few highlights..
This week I'm seeing a lot of questions coming up about career paths in #tech4wildlife. More than usual - which makes me wonder if it's time for us to do a proper series sharing different career paths people have taken into the sector (shout out if you want us to do this?)
EDIT: I'm getting DMs about this, so have started a thread here if you have ideas about us doing a series about career paths. Tell us your ideas here!
If you have advice..
- @soumyabhatta ya is asking how to make the jump from a 30yr IT career into conservation over 3-6 months Conversation here
- If you're in the bioacoustic world, PhD student @esnyder is planning his next career steps and is curious to hear about realities of different #bioacoustic career paths. I like how he frames his questions quite specifically and I'm curious to see replies, so please jump in. Conversation here
- The final one is a bit different/interesting - @Joyeeta is looking for cofounders in a climate/conservation tech company, and brings a background in engineering and experience from raising $15m for his last company and 2 exits. Conversation here
My favourite ongoing convo this week is this discussion about solutions for tracking goats on a remote mountainous island. So much good advice and real experience being shared in it.
My favourite open question. We're seeing that most straight foward #tech4wildlife questions are being answered pretty quickly by our community, but if you're into #drones, @LindyClydeKnowlesasked one yesterday that still open but should be a simple answer if you have a moment. He's looking for advice about open source photogrammetry software options.
Finally, my fav article this week was from the team at Fieldkit about the impacts of the chip shortage on conservation tech - we've been hearing a lot of chat about this from our community, so the article and the subsquent comments on twitter etc have been interesting.
Right, I think that's a wrap from me. Our digest will hit inboxes in the next few hours so I'll drop a link to it as a final tweet to wrap this thread then. In the meantime - how's your week going? Would love to hear/see updates!
Steph
17 June 2022 12:30pm
This has been a really exciting week for me! A lot of cool stuff happening in the WILDLABS East Africa Community. Well, first of all we launched the community and I am happy to see all the interactions happening there. If you are based in East Africa- have you joined the Community? If not, then, head on over here; introduce yourself, take time to explore the resources we have and engage in the discussions- I am looking forward to your inputs on ongoing discussions e,g:
- If you are using EarthRanger, I'd love to hear all about your interactions with the tool here.
- What are some of the Conservation Technology gaps in East Africa? Share your insights here.
Then, I also had a hand in reporting on the first workshop of our Inaugural Women in Conservation Technology Programme; this was a great reminisce of the week we had with the cohort and I'm really excited for what lies ahead and to also witness the impacts of capacity building and mentorship on emerging conservation leaders. If you haven't already, you can catch up with all the updates in this article, and in our socials (Twitter and LinkedIn), as Steph has mentioned.
Aside from that, I came across a couple of interesting projects and work, that we will definitely highlight in the community. It was a great week and I'm looking forward to continue on with learning, interacting, exploring and highlighting more on conservation technology!
Netty.
17 June 2022 12:43pm
ha, I totally didn't expect you to jump into this thread Netty but I'm here for it! Your twitter takeover this week has been super fun to watch, definitely one of my highlights :)
Silverstrand Capital Biodiversity Accelerator+
17 June 2022 11:03am
Pratt & Whitney Global E-STEM Awards
14 June 2022 3:39pm
Looking for examples of cities using digital sustainability tools
22 April 2022 4:39pm
22 April 2022 8:11pm
I't note sure this meets your needs, but you may find this method of interest:
From PLOS ONE: https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249715
8 June 2022 1:13pm
Hi Courtney,
Over on Twitter your question has had a useful reply from CodeforPDX:
Steph
Science Director, Vulcan
4 June 2022 10:50am
Lacuna Fund: Datasets for Climate Applications grant open
3 June 2022 8:33pm
NICFI Satellite Data Program & GEO Indigenous Alliance: Indigenous outreach
2 June 2022 8:41am
Passive Acoustic Monitoring - Malagasy Training Workshop
9 May 2022 4:10pm
WILDLABS 2.0: Introducing Our New Platform
6 May 2022 11:40am
Getting Started in the WILDLABS Community
6 May 2022 12:00am
25 October 2019 9:43pm
Hi Carl,
No problem and happy to go with the name you are most comfortable with. Looking forward to saying hi at the virtual meetup!
Cheers,
Rob