Despite critical advancements in the tech solutions available to conservationists around the world, many existing tools are cost-prohibitive in the landscapes that need them most. Additionally, those who create low-cost and open-source alternatives to pricey market tech are often operating on tight budgets themselves, meaning they have limited resources for the promotion of their solutions to a wider market. We need increased communication around these solutions to highlight their availability, share lessons learned in their creation, and avoid duplication of efforts.
This group is a place to share low-cost, open-source devices for conservation; describe how they are being used, including what needs they are addressing and how they fit in to the wider conservation tech market; identify the obstacles in advancing the capacity of these technologies; and to discuss the future of these solutions - particularly their sustainability and how best to collaborate moving forward.
Header image: Shawn F. McCracken
- @diego_lizcano
- | He/Him
Wildlife biologist interested in biodiversity monitoring and the conservation of mammals. Passionate photographer.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
TerrOïko
R&D Engineer
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @shana
- | she/her
I am a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. I am a researcher with the eDNA Collaborative and Co-Director of the Pacific Marine Energy Center.
- 1 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 8 Groups
- @douggillespie
- | he/his
University of St Andrews
PAMGuard software developer
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @hjayanto
- | He/Him
Your friendly Indo-Crocky-Croc
- 0 Resources
- 29 Discussions
- 16 Groups
Aeracoop & Dronecoria
Computer engineer, Drone Pilot, Seed researcher
- 1 Resources
- 30 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Arribada Initiative
Director at Arribada, a UK-based conservation technology research & development organisation
- 2 Resources
- 95 Discussions
- 11 Groups
Ph.D Speech-Hearing Sciences; 3D Designer/Printer interested in building/testing/deploying standardized environmental recording platforms for scientists and engineers in developing countries.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 10 Groups
- @Durgananda
- | He
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 20 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 6 Discussions
- 6 Groups
Wildlife technician and camera traps enthusiast
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @ptynecki
- | Piotr
Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience in application design, development, testing and deployment. Highly experienced in Health Care, Life Science and BigData projects. Artificial Intelligence researcher (NLP, Computer Vision) with experience in Wildlife Conservation.
- 0 Resources
- 6 Discussions
- 4 Groups
Have you created a successful career in tech and are ready to do something good with your skills and experience? If yes, then join Open Earth's Earthshot mission to build open source digital systems and solutions to...
25 October 2023
Listen in on our interview with Mara Elephant Project’s Tracking Manager, Wilson Sairowua, as he explains how MEP is using software, geofencing and drone technologies to resolve human-elephant conflict across Maasai...
20 October 2023
Can you create an ecological data collection application on Android for Gibbon and Biodiversity Research. Check out this opportunity with us!
24 August 2023
Article
At Appsilon, we are always working to enable our users to get the most out of our solutions. With this in mind, we are happy to introduce two new add-ons to Mbaza AI.
4 July 2023
In this article from Jacinta Plucinski & Akiba of Freaklabs, they share advice on organising your thoughts around building short-term and long-term sustainability considerations into your conservation technology...
21 June 2023
PhD opportunity aims at developing novel imaging methods and deep learning algorithms to describe and classify earthworms at Aarhus University.
21 June 2023
JICA, Japan’s International Cooperation Agency is seeking a digital partner with a proven track record in conservation technology as we launch a pilot project to test technologies to mitigate human-elephant conflict in...
19 June 2023
Careers
Permanent and Full Time role at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
8 June 2023
In our first Conservation Tech Showcase case study, you'll learn about the innovative PantheraIDS, an open-source data management platform and analytical engine that processes, standardizes, and manages conservation-...
11 May 2023
The Innovation in Practice edition of Methods in Ecology and Evolution is still seeking proposals about conservation technology
6 March 2023
November 2023
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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camtrapR has a function that does what you want. i have not used it myself but it seems straightforward to use and it can run across directories of images:https://jniedballa.... |
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Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Open Source Solutions, Software and Mobile Apps | 5 months 1 week ago | |
This was one of my all time favourite Variety Hour talks! @wschan gave us an awesome walk through the open-source low cost acceleratometer... |
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Biologging, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 7 months 1 week ago | |
ooh very cool Salman! Amazing how much tracking devices have come down in price over the years and LoRa/LoRawan is just such a perfect fit for GPS data. Thanks heaps for sharing.... |
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Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Open Source Solutions | 8 months 1 week ago | |
Hello Everyone! My name is Claire and I work as a Field Technician and Veterinarian for Arribada Initiative, check out our upcoming... |
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Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions | 10 months 1 week ago | |
Hi all! I am a mechanical engineer working in the Aerospace Engineering department at a University, and I have the opportunity to take over... |
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Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 10 months 1 week ago | |
There is the Conservation Tech Directory! There's an 'open-source' tag you can search by too. |
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Open Source Solutions, Software and Mobile Apps | 10 months 2 weeks ago | |
Hi everyone! and thanks @StephODonnell for the invite :)I’m a software engineer working on MLOps, and currently studying for a part-time... |
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AI for Conservation, Open Source Solutions | 1 year ago | |
Yes, but for our needs that are not powerful enough |
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Acoustics, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Camera Traps, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 1 month 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 | 1 year 2 months 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 year 3 months ago | |
No, I was never able to figure out how to send these to anyone on here. I was hoping to learn how to clear these videos up if possible! |
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Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Open Source Solutions, Software and Mobile Apps | 1 year 4 months 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 | 1 year 5 months ago |
Hiring Full Stack Developer at Conservation X Labs
10 February 2023 5:35pm
Software Engineer
16 January 2023 12:26pm
New paper - Real-time alerts from AI-enabled camera traps using the Iridium satellite network: A case-study in Gabon, Central Africa
13 January 2023 12:12am
Sending real-time alerts from ecological sensors such as camera traps in areas with poor data connectivity is complex and involves integrating a large number of potentially complex hardware and software components. Our results demonstrate that these components can be successfully integrated to achieve reliable, near real-time alerts from camera traps under challenging field conditions.
Otter video help!
5 September 2022 6:57pm
21 December 2022 7:46pm
Did you get any further with this Britnee?
26 December 2022 6:54pm
No, I was never able to figure out how to send these to anyone on here. I was hoping to learn how to clear these videos up if possible!
Join NASA’s harmful algal bloom ML challenge and win prizes!
15 December 2022 7:56pm
Junior Electrical Engineer (Hardware)
9 December 2022 5:04pm
Senior Software Engineer
9 December 2022 5:01pm
Senior Product & Production Manager (Maternity Cover)
9 December 2022 3:07pm
New: Satellites for Biodiversity Award
5 December 2022 2:08pm
MozFest 2023 call for proposals on Tech & Biodiversity
22 November 2022 11:10am
Picking up signal of GPS tag
10 November 2022 11:29am
16 November 2022 10:54am
Thanks Carly! I've been in awe of what Wildlife Drones is doing, but as you say my work at the moment is focussed on existing GPS units rather than telemetry for tracking. I'll still reach out & ask though. Thanks for your help! :)
16 November 2022 10:55am
Hi Kim! Thanks for sharing, this is really interesting! I'll check out the website & see what I can find out about the mechanics of the device. Thanks again!
21 November 2022 5:25pm
Hey Sol,
The only way for you to collect information from a GPS tag attached to a FAD is if that tag transmits that data to the drone. Unfortunately most receiver packages are a bit too large for hobbyist-style drones (from what I've seen).
Depending on the range/distance from shore, you might be able to have a shore-based receiver system?
Software to aid acoustic sound files visualization/labelling + Software to syncronize video/acoustic sonograms
23 September 2022 1:01pm
8 October 2022 12:44am
I would also recommend Arbimon. It is well set up to handle Audiomoth recordings. Being cloud based, you will need a good internet connection for sound file upload. I'm just starting to investigate its use for Song Scope recordings. Setting up the call recognisers will be a slow process, but they can be made available to all users once done.
8 October 2022 7:33am
You could try using a video editor like DaVinci for looking at your video and audio together. I don't think DaVinci displays sonograms by default (just waveform) but I think it will open your selected audio in an external editor which would allow you to see the sonograms and make measurements with something like Audacity or Kaleidoscope.
20 October 2022 11:01am
The open-source program Audacity can show the spectrograms and histograms and has quite a lot of other useful features, e.g. playing ultrasound calls slower, so it can be heard by people.
Open-source Argos satellite tag for bears - available now
7 October 2022 4:49pm
9 October 2022 5:14am
Oh, that looks so good, and some heavy hitting design firms too!
Conservation Tech Directory - new update!
29 August 2022 2:38pm
23 September 2022 5:26pm
Congrats on the milestone Carly and Gracie!
26 September 2022 10:07pm
Thanks so much!!
Ecological Forecasting Initiative's data analysis webinar series
26 September 2022 6:50pm
Crypto funding for ecosystem and conservation science
8 September 2022 1:48pm
How To Use An Arduino – Beginners Guide
1 September 2022 10:02pm
For anyone interested in WILDLABS' Build Your Own Data Logger course, this beginner's guide to Arduino may be a valuable resource! This page also includes links to other relevant resources on Arduino language and getting started with Arduino software for the first time.
Conservation Technology Research Internship
26 August 2022 4:58pm
Lead Software Engineer for ARISE
19 August 2022 8:22am
CERES TAG
22 July 2022 3:36am
Earth Species Project - Senior AI Research Scientist
15 July 2022 6:40pm
How can open source tools make conservation tech more sustainable and accessible?
30 June 2022 6:56pm
1 July 2022 4:14pm
I've been working with a current visiting scholar who's from China and has been interested in getting started with some acoustic monitoring studies when he goes back to China later this year. I've been working with him to try to figure out some options (with some help from folks met through Wildlabs!) but the name-brand stuff from Wildlife Acoustics is more than double what it would be in the states once customs and imports and exchange rates are taken into account. Open-source solutions that can be manufactured on the ground in countries where we're trying to do work can avoid many of those costs, support local economies, and even be good for the environment to the extent that you're avoiding the (minimal but non-zero) emissions of shipping stuff all over the place.
Self-powered Buoy collecting vital sensor data -- Looking for conservation projects to collaborate with
18 May 2022 6:28am
3 June 2022 7:19am
Hello Aadithya,
Excited to hear about your marine acoustics outreach. I am interested to explore the possibilities of collaborative work on this line.
One of my doctoral scholars is about to submit his thesis on terrestrial acoustic studies. Please respond to [email protected] (as I may likely miss responses if any, send to this group).
Regards
Jaishanker
14 June 2022 11:46am
Hi Jaishanker, I just reached out to over email, apologies for the delay. We are interested in working with underwater hydrophones and this might be of use in your specific case study. Bristlemouth's timeline is still being created, but we're hoping to have devkits ready closer to the end of this year. I'm happy to chat more to learn about the specific research you are doing and how we can best help!
21 June 2022 10:49pm
If you're looking to identify collaborators - probably lots of organizations listed in the Conservation Tech Directory would be interested (quick prelim search yields orgs like Echospace, European Tracking Network, FACT network, IMOS, IOOS, other tracking networks like that, USA's NEON, eOceans, Oceans+)! Also org's like Blue Ventures, Save our Seas (run acoustic tracking array), MBON (run Biotrack) come to mind.
On the lookout for CAD/Microcontroller work!
17 June 2022 5:04pm
Join Seeed’s “IoT Into the Wild Contest for Sustainable Planet 2022” on Hackster to Get 100 Free Hardware and to Win $14,000+ in Prizes!!
14 June 2022 11:04am
UKAN+ Monitoring UK Biodiversity Symposium 15-16th June
31 May 2022 2:58pm
Apply to the 2022 GOSH Gathering in Panamá!
29 March 2022 9:46pm
26 April 2022 11:01am
There are only a few days left to apply to the 2022 Gathering for Open Science Hardware! Join a community of scientists, hardware developers, artists, and activists working together on open hardware for science!
Gathering for Open Science Hardware - Panama Oct 2022
6 April 2022 10:58pm
GOSH Regional Events Funding - Second Round Now Open!
14 March 2022 11:00am
7 September 2022 6:12pm
Thank you for the response! I'm not sure how to find that out. It says MP4. Is that what you're looking for?