Explore Conservation Ethics
In our recent panel episode of Tech Tutors, How do I use conservation tech ethically?, our presenters explored this important subject as they answered the following questions:
- Doug Clark: How do I use conservation tech ethically?
- Laure Joanny: How do I build on existing tools and procedures to use conservation tech ethically?
- Trishant Simlai: How does conservation tech cause harm?
- Koustubh Sharma: How do I manage ethical issues in the field?
Click each presenter's name to view the recording from their individual lecture portion of the panel.
Louis Cohen also created a conservation tech ethics beginner's guide for Tech Tutors participants, available for download here.
And in addition to the many engaging resources shared by participants during this episode, our presenters also provided several papers and other resources to help you explore the many aspects of conservation technology ethics:
- Research Paper (Doug Clark, Chris Sandbrook, Trishant Simlai): Principles for the socially responsible use of conservation monitoring technology and data
- Research Paper (Koustubh Sharma): Conservation and people: Towards an ethical code of conduct for the use of camera traps in wildlife research
- Keynote Presentation (Trishant Simlai): Conservation surveillance as a means for state repression? Psychological terror and the spectacles of fear through the use of drones in India
- The First Nations Principles of OCAP
- Doug Clark: Engaging Northern expertise strengthens ecological science
- Research Paper (Chris Sandbrook): The social implications of using drones for biodiversity conservation
If you're interested in discussing the ethics of conservation technology, you can join the WILDLABS forum dedicated to ethics, and connect with these panelists in this episode's Tech Tutors thread!
Computer engineer, Drone Pilot, Seed researcher
- 1 Resources
- 30 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Conservation Technologist, National Geographic Explorer, and Founder of Conservify and FieldKit
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- 5 Discussions
- 18 Groups
Senior Technical Specialist, Wildlife Trade
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- 9 Discussions
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Jack of all Trades. I've been a zoo keeper, a conservation geneticist and a web developer who specialises in conservation projects and orgs.
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- 3 Discussions
- 15 Groups
I represent the French company BLUSPARK in Brasil, which aims at optimizing natural areas's managment through digital platform/app that connect communities and enhance collective awareness of the daily issues at stake in the areas.
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- 1 Discussions
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I'm the WILDLABS Research Specialist at WWF-US
- 7 Resources
- 52 Discussions
- 24 Groups
I am currently a student studying Wildlife and Ecotourism Management in University of Ìbàdàn, Nigeria, I'm a front-end developer. I am interested in conservation technology
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- 5 Discussions
- 11 Groups
An aviator and a mechanical engineer from the United States with a good amount of experience working with wildlife in India.
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- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
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- 4 Discussions
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PhD researcher at Cardiff University looking at computer vision in disease ecology
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- 8 Groups
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Published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science
1 March 2023
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Article
Meet the women and men supporting gender equality in conservation #tech. Here is a panel discussion the Women in Conservation Tech (WiCT) led in November 2022, during the EarthRanger User Conference (ERUC). Opening up...
30 January 2023
5
The series will focus on how AI is being used to support conservation efforts. The series will discuss the past, present and future of how these technologies advance sustainability, with a focus on the future, and an...
11 October 2022
"A drone emitting orca sounds will be used in attempt to guide the animal, whose health is fast deteriorating"
1 June 2022
January 2023
1
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hello all! Bluspark is a plateform that allows natural area managers such as natural parks or reserves to optimize their day to day... |
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Citizen Science, Community Base, Connectivity, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Protected Area Management Tools, Software and Mobile Apps | 1 month 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 | 5 months 3 weeks ago | |
Hi all, one of the 8 MozFest 2023 spaces is 'Tech & Biodiversity', and the organisers seek input for an event on the intersection of... |
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AI for Conservation, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Open Source Solutions | 6 months 2 weeks ago | |
Fwiw, GBIF published guidance on this topic late last year: Chapman AD (2020) Current Best Practices for Generalizing Sensitive Species Occurrence Data. Copenhagen: GBIF... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech | 1 year 8 months ago | |
Hi everyone, We're half an hour away from our special Ethics panel episode today at 11 AM ET / 4 PM BST, where... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech, Camera Traps | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Hi Kate- it should be out imminently and we'll announce it here when it is. Meantime I'll email you a copy. cheers, Doug. |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech | 2 years 3 months ago | |
Hi Wildlabbers, After a holiday break, Tech Tutors Season 2 continues with our forth episode, featuring Doug Clark, Joseph... |
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Camera Traps, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Community Base | 2 years 4 months ago | |
this paper is a good place to start: Hodgson, J. C., & Koh, L. P. (2016). Best practice for minimising unmanned aerial vehicle disturbance to wildlife in biological field... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech | 2 years 11 months ago | |
The Responsible Data community has published an open letter today https://responsibledata.io/2019/02/08/open-letter-to-wfp-re-... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech | 4 years 3 months ago | |
Hello all. I've been thinking lately about the importance of open source technology in creating advancements in the conservation... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech | 6 years 6 months ago | |
Thanks for contributing these thoughts and resources, Ken. Great to see you in the WILDLABS.NET community! |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech | 7 years 6 months ago | |
The Centre for Global Equality is holding a seminar and discussion about drones and conservation at 12noon GMT on Nov 25th, 2015. The... |
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Ethics of Conservation Tech | 7 years 6 months ago |
Bluspark - Integrated management platefmorm for protected areas
28 April 2023 9:28pm
Gender Equality in Conservation
30 January 2023 10:27am
New paper - Automating violence? The anti-politics of ‘smart technology’ in biodiversity conservation
13 January 2023 12:13am
This article examines the politics of emerging partnerships among big-tech corporations, big international non-governmental organisations (BINGOs) and bilaterals that promote the uptake and implementation of ‘smart technologies’ in biodiversity conservation.
Help - Innovative ways to track elephant movement
28 October 2022 4:50pm
7 November 2022 12:52am
Hi Tyler,
Would like to introduce you to Ceres Tags products
- Ceres Tags products come in boxes of 5, 10 and 24.
- There are some software partners such as Earthranger, Mapipedia and possibly CiboLabs that would be able to assist you with your mapping vegetation requirements
- Ceres Tag does not require any towers, base stations and infrastructure. This allows you to see any movements from the heard outside of their normal herd (boundary alerts), and you will not be disturbing any of the flora and fauna with infrastructure set up.
- For the timing you are looking at, Ceres Wild pings directly to satellite 24 times a day. For Ceres Trace and Ceres Ranch there are 4 within 24 hours. Taking into consideration, when you set up alert areas, you will get them directly to your phone/laptop via your software of choice
- Ceres Ranch is a reusable tag that has just been launched. Use it on this project, remove the tag and then use the tag on your next project
- The software you choose will assist with the history of your animal movements. Ceres Tag is integrated with 11 software partners and in-development with 18 software partners https://cerestag.com/pages/software-partners
- Understanding it is a short-term project, you would be able to use Ceres Tags products without the additional expense of setting up and removing infrastructure- towers, gateways
- With Ceres Tag, you are purchasing the box of tags and picking a suitable software to deliver the information you require. On average, a box of 10 Ceres Trace Tags, is the same as 1 LoRaWAN tower.
14 December 2022 10:49am
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
MozFest 2023 call for proposals on Tech & Biodiversity
22 November 2022 11:10am
Upcoming WWF Webinar Series: Artificial Intelligence and Conservation

11 October 2022 12:30pm
Artificial Intelligence and Conservation: Ethics
11 October 2022 12:28pm
Frontiers Symposium: Digital tools for reversing environmental degradation
5 October 2022 10:23am
TAI4ES: Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence for Environmental Science, 2022 summer school
4 June 2022 11:31am
New article (Reuters): Orca stuck in river to be lured to sea using drone with loudspeakers
1 June 2022 4:02pm
UKAN+ Monitoring UK Biodiversity Symposium 15-16th June
31 May 2022 2:58pm
Data privacy for at-risk species
6 August 2021 5:38am
27 August 2021 3:49pm
If you haven't read them, these 2 papers offer propose decision-making frameworks for sensitive animal occurrence data:
Tulloch AIT, Auerbach N, Avery-Gomm S, Bayraktarov E, Butt N, Dickman CR, Ehmke G, Fisher DO, Grantham H, Holden MH, et al. 2018. A decision tree for assessing the risks and benefits of publishing biodiversity data. Nature Ecol. Evol. 2: 1209-1217. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0608-1
Lennox RJ, Harcourt R, Bennett JR, Davies A, Ford AT, Frey RM, Hayward MW, Hussey NE, Iverson SJ, Kays R. 2020. A novel framework to protect animal data in a world of ecosurveillance. BioScience 70(6): 468–476. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa035
The Research Data Alliance has 2 relevant interest groups:
Sensitive Data IG: This is just getting started.
Data Policy Standardization and Implementation IG: For those publishing results, this group is working on advising more consistent data-access policies. In the paper below resulting from this group's work, they give some general suggestions for defining exceptions to open data policies that include sensitive species data:
Hrynaszkiewicz I, Simons N, Hussain A, Grant R, Goudie S. 2020. Developing a research data policy framework for all journals and publishers. Data Science Journal 19(1): 5. http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-005
If others know of relevant resources please share!
10 September 2021 5:42pm
Our team was just talking about this as well. We work in bioacoustics, so not as complex as the camera trap strategies described in the publication.
Strategy we landed on was to automatically round geo coordinates to map an approx location for species presence.
We welcome thoughts/opinions/ideas on this important topic for our sensitive species in Nepal, Bolivia, and US!
14 September 2021 10:50am
Fwiw, GBIF published guidance on this topic late last year:
Chapman AD (2020) Current Best Practices for Generalizing Sensitive Species Occurrence Data. Copenhagen: GBIF Secretariat. https://doi.org/10.15468/doc-5jp4-5g10.
Tech Tutors: How do I use tech ethically?
5 August 2021 3:28pm
How do I use conservation tech ethically?

26 July 2021 12:00am
Seeking feedback: draft principles for responsible use of conservation surveillance technology
4 June 2020 6:38pm
25 November 2020 5:08pm
Hi Kate, Apologies for the delay responding. We submitted this work to Conservation Science and Practice on July 12 and we are currently working on the revisions. We hope it will be out soon. Stay well!
17 February 2021 11:59pm
Hi Doug - What's the status of this paper? I have anothe rproject looking at conservation AI principles and would like to point ot this paper, if it's out. - Kate
18 February 2021 7:54pm
Hi Kate- it should be out imminently and we'll announce it here when it is. Meantime I'll email you a copy. cheers, Doug.
Tech Tutors: How do I build a community-owned conservation tech research project?
6 January 2021 4:57pm
Guidelines for reducing disturbance to wildlife when using drones
6 March 2020 3:00pm
8 June 2020 6:11pm
this paper is a good place to start: Hodgson, J. C., & Koh, L. P. (2016). Best practice for minimising unmanned aerial vehicle disturbance to wildlife in biological field research. Current Biology, 26(10), R404-R405.
Responsible Data concerns
8 February 2019 3:16pm
Open source vs intellectual property
23 November 2016 2:17pm
Building tech solutions from the ground up
30 November 2015 11:00am
30 November 2015 12:27pm
Thanks for contributing these thoughts and resources, Ken. Great to see you in the WILDLABS.NET community!
Live Event: Centre for Global Equality Seminar about drones and conservation
25 November 2015 12:44pm
4 November 2022 5:24pm
Why would you want to avoid alerting the rangers ?
You don't need high tech for this; elephants leave very obvious tracks and sign.