Ten years ago, we couldn't have imagined how tools like machine learning, eDNA, and satellites would advance and transform conservation work. Now technology is advancing faster than ever, and as tools become smaller, lighter, and more affordable, it's vital to have a space where community members can discuss the next big thing, share ideas, compare tool options, and tell the story of their experiences - positive, negative, and anything in between - while using new technologies.
In 2021, the WILDLABS State of Conservation Tech report detailed what tools show the most promise according to community members, as well as what tools are currently seen as the most effective. And as new tools enter the field, we're excited to see how this data will change over time, and how this group grows over time as well.
Our State of Conservation Tech research also discusses something called the "Hype Cycle" - the pattern that occurs when a new technology bursts onto the scene, promises to be an exciting solution, encounters challenges as new users adopt the tool and put it into practice beyond just theory, and eventually settles into its most effective state as users acquire the right skills to use it to its actual potential. Machine learning, one of the most promising technologies, is currently in the middle of its own hype cycle, and we see community members working through their own hurdles to incorporate ML into their work effectively. Despite what you may think, this Hype Cycle can also be positive for tech development, as it means that users have big ideas for new tools, and with the right resources and skills, they can work toward bringing those ideas to life. And as our community members experiences the Hype Cycle for various tools at their own paces, we hope this group will also serve as a place to discuss that process and overcome hurdles together.
Ready to discover new possibilities? Join our Emerging Tech group now and get to know your forward-thinking conservation tech peers!
Header photo: Internet of Elephants
Hi, Cynthia Gichimu here. I'm a conservationist, and a champion for youths. I believe in environmental sustainability for posterity. I volunteer as a Project Officer with the Friends of Kinangop Plateau, a community-based local action group committed to biodiversity conservation.
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Kenyan Nature and Wildlife photographer
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I'm a GIS and Remote Sensing specialist with a focus on conservation, currently working as a Visual Data Scientist. I'm passionate about leveraging AI tools to enhance conservation and environmental management efforts.
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PhD candidate in Computer Science working on Computer Vision for glacier front delineation in synthetic aperture radar satellite images
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A systems and policy specialist, currently working as the Quality & Accreditation Manager for Ceres Tag.
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Student at Aberystwyth University. Bug Fanatic🪲. Worked at Octophin Digital for my industrial year placement 🐙.
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This account is managed by the WILDLABS Team. Tag us or DM whenever you need help from our community team.
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I'm the WILDLABS Research Lead at WWF-US
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Running a Tech for Good initiative at Cambridge Consultants, looking for organisations who need help developing new technology for conservation
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I'm the Community Manager at WILDLABS
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Skylight is looking for someone who loves our ocean, has a deep interest in apply cutting-edge tech to protect it, is proficient in English and Spanish, and has a background in partnership building and training.
10 March 2023
New paper in Trends in Parasitology discusses how acoustic monitoring can be used to assess presence and overlap of host or reservoir species, disease vectors and human activity.
8 March 2023
The Innovation in Practice edition of Methods in Ecology and Evolution is still seeking proposals about conservation technology
6 March 2023
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We develop Precision Fishing technology to help commercial fishermen catch their target species more consistently & sustainably.
27 February 2023
We develop Precision Fishing technology to help commercial fishermen catch their target species more consistently & sustainably.
27 February 2023
Careers
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.
27 February 2023
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You’re invited to the WILDLABS Variety Hour, our monthly community event connecting you to the exciting projects, research, and ideas that are happening in conservation tech right now. Brought to you with the support of...
15 February 2023
Are you building a sustainability start-up and want to maximise your impact? We want to support you! We are looking for startups developing sustainability-focused products or recycling technologies that help keeping...
15 February 2023
Technology to End the Sixth Mass Extinction. Salary: $104k-144K; Location: Washington DC or Seattle WA, potential hybrid; 5+ years of Full stack development experience; Deadline March 15th - view post for full job...
10 February 2023
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Frontiers in Conservation Science is calling for submissions for a Research Topic that aims at examining the paradoxical relationship that has been established in recent years between the flagships of new technology...
10 February 2023
Do you have any new methods or examples of practical applications of emerging new technologies that can help solve ecological problems? Submit a proposal to the new OA Special Feature of Ecological Solutions and...
7 February 2023
Are you excited by the potential for new technologies to help monitor the natural world? Do you enjoy communicating your passion for technology and nature with diverse audiences? We are seeking an enthusiastic...
2 February 2023
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Interesting. Just to comment on the 'please do not use ChatGPT to write grant proposals' as an ambitious use case - personally, I wasn't suggesting or planning to use chatgpt to... |
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AI for Conservation, Emerging Tech | 2 days 7 hours ago | |
Hi James - I'm working for Regen Network at the intersection of blockchain and ecosystem regeneration and am developing an Environmental Stewardship initiative that might be of... |
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Emerging Tech | 2 days 9 hours ago | |
Hi Andrea! Although I am a keen user and observer of the Moveapps initiative, my R or Python coding skills are next to non- existing. I am therefore not likely to be contributing... |
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Biologging, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools , Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Software and Mobile Apps | 2 weeks 6 days ago | |
Hi all,Thank you so much for sharing the resources, these are quite insightfull |
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Emerging Tech | 3 weeks 6 days ago | |
Hi @Sicily_Fiennes,Over the past several years, I have explored how to design engaging and useful tools for the exploration of audio recording to locate calls of a particular bird... |
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Conservation Tech Training and Education, Emerging Tech | 1 month 1 week ago | |
Hi Titus,If the usual syntactic foam sources aren't available, an option may be to add an empty dry housing or use a larger housing for the BRUV, just to provide the buoyancy.You... |
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Camera Traps, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
My original background is in ecology and conservation, and am now in the elected leadership of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware which convenes researchers developing open... |
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AI for Conservation, Biologging, Camera Traps, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools , Drones, Emerging Tech, Sensors | 2 months 1 week ago | |
Hello All - @sarabeery et Al have just put a pre-print out on their educational insights into teaching Computer Vision to ecologists. I... |
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Acoustic Monitoring, AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Early Career, Emerging Tech | 2 months 2 weeks ago | |
intrested. |
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Community Base, Data management and processing tools , Early Career, Emerging Tech | 2 months 3 weeks ago | |
Thanks Alice, it does! |
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Early Career, Emerging Tech | 3 months 1 week ago | |
I just came across this interesting paper in which seismic monotoring of animals like elephants was mentioned. This is the study refered to:Cheers,Lars |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Emerging Tech, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Remote Sensing & GIS, Sensors | 3 months 1 week ago | |
Hi Steph. Would be interested also. |
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Biologging, Community Base, Connectivity, Data management and processing tools , Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS | 3 months 2 weeks ago |
ChatGPT for conservation
16 January 2023 10:04am
24 March 2023 1:28pm
ChatGPT is not at all reliable for pulling in scientific information - in fact it is not able to pull Google-able real information. Its database is very limited and for everything it doesn't know the answer to, it simply makes something up!
Here is an example: I asked ChatGPT what is the difference between scorpionfish and stonefish and a bunch of follow up questions. They were answered in a "seemingly" reliable way. But when I asked if any of these two species are on the IUCN vulnerable or endangered list, it said yes. I asked for "any examples?", it returned 4 results with actual species scientific names for each category (BTW - I was just testing if it could understand my 2x2 question, I am an HCI expert, so I was just curious). However, a quick Google search returned that these species were actually of "Least Concern". Partially fake information is even more dangerous than 100% fake. I would have so much preferred if ChatGPT had said, "I am not sure, why don't you Google that..."At least it had the decency to admit the mistake and apologise when caught ;-)
So, please do not use ChatGPT to write grant proposals or any of the other ambitious use cases mentioned in this forum by relying on the data it returns - not without googling and validating everything yourself! At least not yet. When ChatGPT gets married to Alexa :-) and can search and analyse web information reliably, then we will be one step closer to an indeed powerful tool for searching and composing information for grants, reviews, reports etc. Even then, scientists will still need to be able to trace and validate the data sources.
24 March 2023 3:07pm
Interesting. Just to comment on the 'please do not use ChatGPT to write grant proposals' as an ambitious use case - personally, I wasn't suggesting or planning to use chatgpt to do the specific content/science side of a grant proposal, my assumption was it would be completely untrustworthy for this and so hadn't even considered it. The usecase we've been talking about has been as a writing assistant, helping with framing and structure for a proposal, and as a starting point to work from rather than starting from a blank page. It's been relatively useful already in this context. It's a helpful jumping off point, not for a finished product.
NFTs for Carbon Credits
16 March 2023 3:24am
24 March 2023 12:41pm
Hi James - I'm working for Regen Network at the intersection of blockchain and ecosystem regeneration and am developing an Environmental Stewardship initiative that might be of interest. I'm also familiar with a lot of related work people are doing around the world, including projects focused on NFTs. I think NIHT Inc. is using or at least thinking about using blockchain tech for forest protection in PNG. There is a lot of innovation going on in this space, but there are also a lot of sketchy projects so navigating the options isn't all that straightforward. One of these days, it would be good to have a Wildlabs session on blockchain and conservation. Let me know how I can help.
The Variety Hour: March
23 March 2023 11:09am
Skylight | LATAM & Caribbean Partner Relationship Manager
10 March 2023 5:21pm
Using acoustic monitoring to track infectious disease risk
8 March 2023 1:29pm
Proposals wanted for Innovation in Practice

6 March 2023 10:34pm
Moveapps: EMAC23 Coding Challenge
3 March 2023 7:58am
3 March 2023 3:12pm
Super initiative! I hope you get a lot of entries to this coding challenge!
6 March 2023 7:53am
Thanks Lars! Look forward to any entries from you and your colleagues. If you have an questions or suggestions, let me know.
6 March 2023 1:11pm
Hi Andrea! Although I am a keen user and observer of the Moveapps initiative, my R or Python coding skills are next to non- existing. I am therefore not likely to be contributing this time... Some day perhaps ;)
The WILDLABS Variety Hour: February 2023 - YouTube
3 March 2023 11:24am
Last week's Variety Hour is now up on youtube. It was a great session - we covered Moveapps, an awesome community project building marine biologgers, chatgpt and google earth engine vs microsoft's planetary computer. Thanks everyone who came along!
Moveapps EMAC23 Coding Challenge – Participate now!
3 March 2023 7:45am
US Sales Manager for Fishing Tech (full time)
27 February 2023 3:04pm
EU Sales Manager for Fishing Tech (full time)
27 February 2023 2:57pm
Hardware Lead (Remote)
27 February 2023 10:51am
Block chains and NFTs in wildlife conservation
16 February 2023 11:17am
16 February 2023 12:18pm
Hey Janet!
We had a slightly intense discussion at one of our recent variety hour shows, which I belive @Netty_Cheruto already sent your way. But in case anyone else spots this thread and has the same question, it's here:
What specifically were you looking to learn more about? If it's just about NFTs and blockchain in general, the work the Unearthodox team (formerly known as the Luc Hoffmann Institute) are doing might be worth having a look at. They got in contact with me recently to share their project ‘Digital Disruption and Future of Conservation NGOs project’ and the digital toolkit that has recently been launched as part of this project.
The project is focused on exploring the potential of emerging digital technologies, including blockchain, to transform conservation practices and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of conservation NGOs. The project aims to understand how these technologies can be used to benefit the conservation sector and support the work of conservationists around the world.
The digital toolkit has been designed as a basic introduction to blockchain concepts and their potential use for nature conservation. It includes information and resources to help conservation practitioners understand the opportunities and challenges of using blockchain technology in their work.
If you have specific questions, pop them in a reply and I'll see if someone from their team can pop in here and answer them!
Steph
24 February 2023 12:24pm
Hi Janet,
I've written quite a bit about this from the perspective of conservation and conservation science finance. You can see some of the articles here www.moonjellyacademy.org and more on my LinkedIn pages.
LP
27 February 2023 9:45am
Hi all,
Thank you so much for sharing the resources, these are quite insightfull
Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s Annual Meeting 2023
20 February 2023 10:56pm
The Variety Hour: 2023 Lineup
15 February 2023 11:29am
Amazon Sustainability Accelerator
15 February 2023 10:22am
The Variety Hour: February
14 February 2023 6:26pm
Suggestions for user research/co-design methodologies
9 November 2022 11:32am
31 January 2023 3:01pm
Hi,
I'm the UX researcher at Rainforest Connection (RFCx). I use research methods such as interviews, usability testing, and card sorting to understand scientists' pain points and needs while using the bioacoustic monitoring platform, Arbimon.
In terms of tools, I use Figjam for brainstorming and mapping, Notion for a research repository, Zoom for interviews, and Figma for prototyping. I'm exploring how to use ChatGPT to speed up my process too! I use it to draft recruitment emails, summarize transcripts etc. I try to use tools that are either low-cost or that RFCx already has subscriptions of.
Since I'm a UX team of one, I also partner with University student groups/practicum courses to let UX students take on some of our projects.
Feel free to reach out; I'm always happy to chat.
10 February 2023 1:06pm
Hi @Sicily_Fiennes
Apologies for the very late response to this thread, are you still looking for advice on user research and co-creation methodologies? I see there is a lot of support here on tools already ;-)
I would recommend running some sessions with low fidelity prototypes as early as possible, definitely before investing in any development! You can do this with a variety of tools, but paper prototypes can also be great if you are trying to compare very different concepts. You can use sketches to run more of a co-creation session, so that you encourage your users to define the data insights that they need explicitly and explore together different ways of visualizing & interacting with the information.
I normally do 1-1 interviews to define needs and identify potential barriers, before prototyping. But, you might be further ahead in the design process by now.
If you still need some advice on defining the key use cases or the data visualization with users, I would be happy to offer a quick chat over zoom on how to go about it.
I am an independent service designer / user researcher with 14 years of experience in the tech industry, based in Europe :-)
Hope this helps!
Yanna
14 February 2023 1:21am
Hi @Sicily_Fiennes,
Over the past several years, I have explored how to design engaging and useful tools for the exploration of audio recording to locate calls of a particular bird species (i.e. Eastern bristlebirds). I worked to understand the practices of a species recovery team, as well as their experiences trialling audio recorders and analysis. Additionally, I explored knowledge of birders and broader audiences, and how this relates to them making sense of audio recordings and broader nature media (e.g. distribution maps and photographs of birds). My methods to understand these included semistructured interviews, artifact exploration (very low fidelity prototyping), and ethnographically inspired participant-observer fieldwork. I also took some inspiration from design research approaches such as contextual inquiry, cultural/technical probes, and more. My background prior to being a design researcher was in ecology, conservation, and environmental education, so I drew from that expertise to understand a little-known bird species and the role of technology in supporting people in becoming familiar with it. Most of my work was positioned within the field of Interaction Design, publishing via Human-Computer Interaction, Designing Interactive Systems, and Computer Supported Cooperative Work outlets (i.e. rather than UX/UI). If interested in knowing more, perhaps have a look at papers I was the first author on that are listed here, and a few videos here. My research highlights the importance of understanding the situation, knowledge, experiences, and needs of different groups of people to design enticing and useful technologies that foster learning, cooperation, and integration into existing practices. In my experience, people are sometimes compelled to be more open and creative when not interacting with technologies that can be perceived as expensive and polished products.
Deep Sea BRUVS Development
28 January 2023 1:41am
11 February 2023 3:07am
Hi Titus,
If the usual syntactic foam sources aren't available, an option may be to add an empty dry housing or use a larger housing for the BRUV, just to provide the buoyancy.
You can make your own syntactic foam from glass microballoons and epoxy resin, but this will require experimentation and testing. For sub-surface buoyancy, you could also use a jerry can full of cooking oil, or a coil of polypropylene rope.
Hiring Full Stack Developer at Conservation X Labs
10 February 2023 5:35pm
Call for Proposals: 'Can Technology Save Biodiversity?'
10 February 2023 10:31am
Tech for a sustainable future: The challenges and opportunities ahead
10 February 2023 10:30am
Interesting read on how tech is contributing to climate change and what companies are doing to improve sustainability.
Call for Proposals: 'Special Feature: Innovation in Practice'
7 February 2023 11:56am
Job: Building a network of conservation tech across continents
2 February 2023 1:50pm
Key Conservation Platform Launch Party!
2 February 2023 6:17am
We need more people using Earth observation data
24 January 2023 4:51pm
3 February 2023 11:11am
3 February 2023 11:17am
3 February 2023 7:40pm
Interview for Technologies in Conservation
24 November 2022 10:07am
16 January 2023 2:42pm
I'd be happy to chat with you if you wanted! My expertise is within passive acoustic monitoring particularly. The Conservation Tech Directory might be useful for you in identifying relevant actors within the space.
16 January 2023 5:16pm
Happy to contribute [email protected]
17 January 2023 5:12pm
My original background is in ecology and conservation, and am now in the elected leadership of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware which convenes researchers developing open source tech for science. I am not working on a specific piece of technology right now, but am happy to contribute some higher-level views for your interview if that helps.
Conservation Technology Intern (Vietnam)
11 January 2023 5:00pm
PhD position (m/f/d) in Insect Ecology and Conservation
9 January 2023 12:53pm
Education Paper on Computer Vision for Ecology
9 January 2023 5:30am
21 March 2023 5:13pm
Interesting thoughts.
1. Great - if it makes it easier for everyone GREAT. If we can all spend less time writing about what makes us good and worthy of funding it means we can spend more time on the actual work. And I can only speak for WILDLABS, but most of our funding comes from people seeing our work and talking to us about what we could do together, rather than us writing long applications about work we could be doing and competing against other projects - though we do do this too. That's not true for everyone, but for us it's going to mean alleviating a pretty significant administrative barrier (and already is).
2. And as someone who reviews a lot of grant and job applications, if it improves the overall quality - even better. I'd rather read across the board good applications and decide on merit, rather than deciding based on who understand how to construct a compelling case for a particular application.
3. Tricky one - but surely it's more equitable to have tighter criteria rather than knocking half hour because of weaker writing?
This last point is interesting and one I hadn't thought about - longer term access could mean entrenching more inequality rather than alleviating it. I dont have any answers, but it's given me something to think about.