In recent years, drone technologies have been explored for a range of applications in conservation including (but not limited to) mapping, biodiversity inventories, antipoaching patrols, wildlife tracking, and fire monitoring. The rise of customizable, open-source drones like those of ArduPilot and OpenROV hold promise for more effective conservation applications, and combined with other monitoring sensors and devices, they are capable of collecting high-resolution data quickly, noninvasively, and at relatively low cost.
However, challenges remain in putting these tools to use. A recent paper reviewing 256 conservation drone projects highlighted some of these major obstacles, ranging from unintended social and ecological consequences of drone operations to still prohibitive costs, both in terms of hardware and in terms of storing and processing large volumes of data. The longstanding challenge of power/battery life remains as well.
If you're considering trying out drones for yourself, and want to explore the possibilities and understand the major conversations happening around this technology, check out these beginner's resources and conversations from across the WILDLABS platform:
Three Resources for Beginners:
- Conservation Technology User Guidelines Issue 5: Drones, World Wildlife Fund | Drones, best practices, ethics, regulations, case studies
- WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Recording: Drones, Craig Elder, Dr. Claire Burke, and Gabriel Levin | Drones, thermal camera, wildlife crime, ML, biologging
- New Paper: Drones and Bornean Orangutan Distribution, Sol Milne | Drones, data analysis, citizen science, community science, primates
Three Forum Threads for Beginners:
- Curious about radio-tracking with drones? | Wildlife Drones, Biologging (5 replies)
- Drones for GIS Best practice Document | Adrian Hughes, Drones (10 replies)
- WWF Conservation Technology Series: Drones in Conservation | Aurélie Shapiro, Drones (7 replies)
Three Tutorials for Beginners:
- How do I use a drone to capture radio-tracking data? | Debbie Saunders, Tech Tutors
- How do I choose the right drone for my conservation goals? | Shashank Srinivasan, Tech Tutors
- How do I strategically allocate drones for conservation? | Elizabeth Bondi, Tech Tutors
Want to know more about using drones, and learn from experts in the WILDLABS community? Make sure you join the conversation in our Drones group!
*Header photo: Parker Levinson, Point Blue Conservation Science
- @BioVipa
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Natural Resources Engineer. Birdwatcher and citizen science lover, data science enthusiast.
Wanting to learn more ways to use technology for conservation.
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Software developer with a focus on machine learning, my background is in environmental science. In my free time I love going into nature and photographing it. The intersection between wildlife conservation and tech interests me a lot so I'm here to learn more.
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University of Michigan & Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Incoming Assistant Professor and Researcher in Artificial Intelligence for Conservation
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- @lucchini.karen
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PhD Student at the Post Graduate Programme in Animal Biology at Federal University of Pernambuco. Biologist at the National Centre of Research and Conservation of Aquatic Mammals (ICMBio/CMA).
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São Paulo State University (UNESP)
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World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
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World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
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Wildlife conservationist currently working on biodiversity monitoring and community development for AFOLU VCS & CCB projects.
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I am PhD in Wildlife Ecology/Management from PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Pakistan. I have extensive field and lab experience with reptiles, birds, and mammals (10 years). My area of specializations are: wildlife conservation & management, small mammalian survey techniques.
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Katherine Chou, Product Lead at Google[x] Labs, sees technology as a way to make the impossible, possible. She explores differences in how wildlife NGOs and the tech sector think and plan, and what the conservation ...
22 December 2015
John Amos, President of SkyTruth, explores how remote sensing is being used in conservation today and the importance of sky-truthing. He examines the role that citizen scientists can play in increasing transparency in...
21 December 2015
New technologies offer a lot of potential for conservation, but are there potential risks to deploying these new technologies? In this first thought piece for the Ethics of Conservation Tech Group, Dr Chris Sandbrook...
2 November 2015
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Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi!I would take a look at Although developed for camera trap imagery, it is by no means restricted to such.Cheers,Lars |
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Camera Traps, Community Base, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS, Software and Mobile Apps | 6 months 3 weeks ago | |
In what ways can drones contribute to linking individuals, communities, and small-scale producers in rural areas, facilitating the support... |
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Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 months ago | |
@dmorris joined Variety Hour to give us 'a bunch of lightning talks inside a lightning talk'. Check out the recording to get a whirlwind... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 months ago | |
@caseyslaught is a Full-stack engineer with Virunga National Park, and he's built a handy tool to host, visualize, and... |
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Drones | 8 months ago | |
Stefano Puliti joined Variety Hour to share his work using 3D photogrammetric data from UAVs for pre- and post-harvest inventory of forest... |
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Climate Change, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS | 10 months 1 week ago | |
During Andrew's talk, @dmorris put out a call in the chat that might be relevant to folks catching up on the video, so I'll drop it here too: Re: Andrew's fish work... part... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Drones, Marine Conservation | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Carly, that would be great! Thanks! I work with soundscapes and love the work of Rainforest Connection! I'll send you an email (@CUNY) to coordinate! |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Hi Donya! You might check out the Conservation Tech Directory to see what projects/organizations/tools best align with your interests and skills. |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Drones | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Do you have a wild animal tracking story that involves adventure or misadventure? Share it with us! From going around in circles for hours... |
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Biologging, Citizen Science, Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS | 1 year 2 months ago | |
GeoNadir and OpenDroneMap might be of interest for drones?The Conservation Tech Directory might have some additional projects/tools of note. |
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Data management and processing tools, Drones | 1 year 3 months ago | |
Following up here... a few of us huddled virtually and assembled standardized metadata, standardized sample code, and sample annotated images for all the datasets on that list.... |
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Drones | 1 year 4 months ago | |
Hi Jeremy, With a quick search I've found the paper linked below. It looks like equipments such as Livox MID are sufficient for plot-level analyses, but not for individual... |
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Drones, Earth Observation 101 Community, Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS, Sensors | 1 year 4 months ago |