Karibu to the WILDLABS East Africa Community!
Why WE Exist
After 7 years of strategically building the global WILDLABS community, it was now time for our team to venture into the next phase of our programme: creating regional virtual hubs. The very first regional hub to go live is the East Africa community, a space that will create opportunities for members to build their knowledge, skills, expertise and reach. The idea behind creating the EA community spanned from the need to foster connections and collaborations of conservation and technology players in EA as well as make a true positive impact by tailoring resources and opportunities that will help solve conservation challenges in the region. Learn more

All we do at WILDLABS is firmly grounded on the community we serve and hope to serve! As part of this commitment, time and resources have been dedicated to ensure that this platform will be a reliable and credible resource to advance one’s knowledge, skills and be a step towards solving some of the most pressing conservation issues WE face in East Africa.
WE exist to fulfill the needs of conservation technology players in East Africa through resources & opportunities, to add value to their work, to inspire innovation & collaboration and most importantly, to contribute towards making the world a better place!
What WE Hope To Achieve
Purposefully designed to connect conservation technology practitioners and experts based in East Africa, the WILDLABS EA community will be a great space to access and share conservation technology resources, ask and answer questions unique to the landscape, collaborate and generate new and innovative ideas.
This platform is a great space for members to collaboratively fill in regional conservation tech knowledge and skills gaps present and share their work and other resources, reducing and/or eliminating replication and leading to more streamlined and effective solutions. Through the conversations taking place within the community, members will be able to connect with each other and get advice to advance their work, careers, and innovative ideas.
The community hopes to encourage level interactions that will generate new ideas on solving regional conservation tech challenges, encourage innovation, introduce members to new applications of tech in conservation, as well as spark new questions on Conservation tech in EA.
How To Get Involved
Are you keen on getting involved and understanding the intersection of conservation and technology in East Africa? This community offers an exceptional space where you can join us and get involved; to learn, share, collaborate and support one another on matters regarding conservation technology in East Africa. From posting articles, engaging in discussions, attending virtual and in-person events to supporting, applying or taking part in Programmes and opportunities in the community, these are some of the ways for you to get involved.
The first thing you can do when joining our community is to jump into our welcome thread and introduce yourself to our community. Get started here

Resources
The WILDLABS team is dedicated to making conservation tech resources accessible to the whole community in a strategic and equitable manner. With a myriad of engaging events, programmes, weekly conversations and opportunities lined up, the East Africa community will be a great virtual place to build one’s skills, knowledge, and networks. Growing a vibrant and diverse community will be made possible by the collaborative efforts of all members through their interactions and their active participation in regional activities organized/supported by WILDLABS.
Some of the resources that will give you a feel of Conservation technology tools and systems implemented in East Africa include:
- Using IoT and Machine Learning to Protect Kenya's Rivers.
- Learning Resource: Exploring Species Interactions with Snapshot Serengeti.
- Mobile Phone Reporting for Rapid Wildlife Health Response in Uganda
Members of the East Africa community are invited to share their projects, organizations, experiences, failures, and ideas in their Conservation Tech work, to support the development of tools that will form part of the resources made available to other members.

Programmes
Women in Conservation Technology Programme
With a cohort of 15 talented and emerging female conservationists, our inaugural Women in Conservation Technology Programme, is the first of many Programmes organized for the community. WILDLABS, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, and Fauna & Flora International partnered to run this programme as the very first opportunity organized for the East Africa community.

This programme is designed for early career Kenyan women in conservation who are looking to explore emerging conservation technologies. In addition to in-person and virtual training on foundational skills and knowledge on conservation technologies to overcome conservation and wildlife challenges in Kenya, participants have an opportunity to network with a strong cohort of other women leaders in the field and gain professional development skills. Through this unique blend of training and networking, we hope to empower Kenyan women in conservation who are often underrepresented in the sector. It is an avenue to encourage the group to generate innovative ideas, novel solutions, and diverse perspectives that engender conservation success.
We received close to 200 outstanding applications for the Programme this year, and this reminded us of the collaborative conservation efforts, implemented through great projects running, exceptional conservation and technology organizations and visionary conservationists in East Africa. We hope to reach more conservation technologists to build their knowledge and skills through such trainings and capacity building Programmes.
'Women in Science are often underrepresented in Kenya. Intentionally creating this training Programme for Women in Conservation Technology goes a long way to show that well-thought out initiatives are currently being put in place to empower women in the field. This Programme will not only benefit me, but will be a motivation to upcoming Women in Conservation Technology.'~ Consolata Gathoni Gitau
With the knowledge and skills garnered from this programme, participants will be able to spread awareness of novel conservation technology solutions to their home organizations and empower other female conservationists. We believe that this Programme is a great strategic direction towards empowering early career female conservationists!
Events
From in-person and virtual events, this hub is a great place tailored for conservationists and technologists in East Africa to support each other in creating novel solutions to complex regional conservation challenges. The East Africa community will be part of already established virtual events such as Tech Tutors and Virtual meetups, where topics covered will answer questions related to conservation challenges unique to East Africa. The virtual events will bring together members and participants to learn new skills, get expert advice, ask questions, gain knowledge and foster existing knowledge and skills.
The East Africa community exists because of each of you, and we hope you are happy to join and use the platform for knowledge sharing, collaboration and networking. You can join the community and interact with other members here. To get in touch with Netty Cheruto, our WILDLABS East Africa Community Coordinator, email her at: [email protected].
Header Image: @Dylan Habil
Group curators
WILDLABS & Fauna & Flora International (FFI)
I am the WILDLABS East Africa Community Coordinator
- 9 Resources
- 37 Discussions
- 7 Groups
A marine research intern and science communicator with experience in photography, filmmaking, and collaborating on multi-disciplinary and community-centered marine research focusing on: fisheries management, seagrass ecosystems, and ocean literacy
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
I am Head of Partnerships at Sovereign Nature Initiative, a Dutch not-for-profit. Our work focuses on the research & development of technology, governance framework and economic models that are in service to life.
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 1 Groups
Iam very passionate in environment as well as wildlife conservation
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
I am a conservation enthusiast who aims at learning more about conservation and its technology. My research interests lie in wildlife conservation in anthropogenic landscapes.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 8 Groups
A systems and policy specialist, currently working as the Quality & Accreditation Manager for Ceres Tag.
- 1 Resources
- 6 Discussions
- 14 Groups
Conservationist
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 1 Groups
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
I am an ecologist and program manager with experience leading research projects at the intersection of remote sensing and species conservation. I specialize in the application of animal tracking data to conserve migratory species on a changing planet.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
WILDLABS
I'm the WILDLABS Research Lead at WWF-US
- 4 Resources
- 46 Discussions
- 23 Groups
Curious.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 1 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 11 Groups
Senior Research Scientist and conservationist with a key interest in the conservation of birds through research.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
In this interview with wildlife scientist Arjun Dheer, we discuss pressing conservation issues in Africa, his experiences working as a wildlife researcher in several African countries, and a look into the future of...
11 August 2022
1
Article
Ceres Tag sends just in time alerts and GPS location to have the power to track and trace.
22 July 2022
3
#AGU22, where Science Leads the Future, will take place in Chicago and online everywhere on 12th-16th December. Submit your abstract by 3rd August, for the Global Environmental change session on: Applications of Earth...
18 July 2022
1
The Earth Species Project (ESP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to decoding animal communication and translating non-human language.
15 July 2022
1
In an effort to sustainably supply clean water within the conservancy, Ol Pejeta has installed Hydropanels; a water technology that utilizes solar energy to extract clean, pollutant-free drinking water from the...
29 June 2022
2
In May, we kicked off the six month Women in Conservation Tech programme with our first in-person workshop. This was a jam-packed week of technical training, field activities, professional development and empowerment...
14 June 2022
4
Baotree addresses the challenge of data collection at the grassroots level; to ensure participatory, accurate and verifiable data is captured. A software piloted in Kenya and looking to scale globally, Baotree has so...
9 June 2022
1
Giraffe Conservation Foundation is seeking a Conservation Science Data Specialist, with a background in Computer sciences or Natural sciences, to assist with the day-to-day management and analysis of data to advance...
17 May 2022
On 3rd November 2021, Earthranger Announced Giraffe Conservation Foundation and Lion Guardians as the inaugral Conservation Tech Award Recipients. The two organizations are Harnessing the Power of Technology to Protect...
3 November 2021
1
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...
27 October 2021
This article explores the use of IoT and Machine Learning Technologies in Ewaso Nyiro River, Kenya - which serves several communities as well as wildlife in Olpejeta Conservancy and Lewa Conservancy, among others. Data...
21 October 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
November 2022
2
June 2022
event
May 2022
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event
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hey Everyone,Are you ready for our next Live Q&A Session? If you're looking for an effective animal monitoring solution, Join us... |
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Biologging, East Africa Community | 1 day 13 hours ago | |
@Ann_Wambui , Qgis and ArcGis Desktop are stand alone apps that are useful in coming up with geojson files and/or shapefiles that store the location, shape, and attributes of... |
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Data management and processing tools , East Africa Community, Protected Area Management Tools | 3 days 13 hours ago | |
HI benard sorry am replying late,and yes i the data was exported as shapefile 2.i used same projection which is 37N WGS 84 on both apps and still the exported shape file... |
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Remote Sensing & GIS, East Africa Community | 3 weeks ago | |
100%! Also heard many asking about SMART Connect & Mobile, and their integration with other software.Thank you for your input :) |
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Community Base, East Africa Community | 4 weeks 2 days ago | |
Hi Kate,I highly appreciate your feedback. I love your idea of using wild ID .I have registered for the wild ID and am looking forward to using it in future. I wont hesitate to... |
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Camera Traps, East Africa Community | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
The overriding objective of many economies in East Africa is to progress the nations with more efficient systems in the different sectors,... |
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East Africa Community | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
its nylon rubber material |
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East Africa Community, Biologging | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
Thank you so much Netty, I really enjoyed it.Good luck to you all with your work.Keep well! |
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AI for Conservation, East Africa Community | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
Hey Carly,Good question. Data collection for the assessment was structured into; Interviews (12 conservation organizations were interviewed), online survey (64 respondents) and... |
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East Africa Community | 2 months ago | |
Very Insightful Ken! Great to see how the team at Ol Pejeta has been keen on integrating EarthRanger with other software, to have everything in a single system and better monitor... |
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East Africa Community, Protected Area Management Tools | 2 months 1 week ago | |
Thank You Netty! I love the new developments and the community setup. I am excited to see what is next. Thank you. |
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East Africa Community | 3 months 1 week ago |
Live Q&A Discussion on Ceres Tag: An animal monitoring Solution!
17 August 2022 at 06:57am
From the Field: An interview with Arjun Dheer
11 August 2022 at 06:27am
Live Q&A Discussion on EarthRanger: All you need to know about the system!
22 July 2022 at 06:41am
12 August 2022 at 12:34pm
Hello Kennedy,
Many thanks for sharing your experiences with ER.
Does ER support integration with Qgis and Arc gis desktop or its only configured to support Arcgis online only?
15 August 2022 at 06:53am
@Ann_Wambui , Qgis and ArcGis Desktop are stand alone apps that are useful in coming up with geojson files and/or shapefiles that store the location, shape, and attributes of geographic features.
Earthranger does provide a mechanism to upload these geojson and/or shapefiles so that the geographic features stored within these files can be visualized on Earthranger.
CERES TAG
22 July 2022 at 03:36am
2022 EarthRanger User Conference
20 July 2022 at 09:08pm
Tech Tutors East Africa: Call for Topics and Speakers
19 July 2022 at 09:28am
19 July 2022 at 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 at 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 at 06:43am
Earth Species Project - Senior AI Research Scientist
15 July 2022 at 06:40pm
29 July 2022 at 10:41am
Thank you so much for leading this Q&A session @kennedy_muriithi and for your time. It was lovely hosting you and I believe the community has learnt a lot about the EarthRanger system.
If you have any questions for Kennedy, kindly drop them anytime in this discussion thread- he is more than happy to answer all your questions!
Thank you Kennedy and see you all in our next Q&A session. We will be exploring an interesting conservation technology topic and featuring an amazing speaker, so stay tuned. See you next time!