Hi everyone!

Sharing a Project Update here :)

This past July, we successfully launched the expansion of our bee mapping work across the Peruvian Amazon with the support of WildLabs. During our expedition, collectively with our team members we identified 38 stingless beehives representing several key species, strengthening our database for conservation planning.

We also led capacity-building workshops for 25 Indigenous men, women and youth on stingless beekeeping, habitat monitoring, and GPS-based data collection. These sessions are part of our broader effort to integrate technology with traditional knowledge and to equip the next generation of conservation leaders.

Also we are very happy to share that our pilot work in the Junín region has now been published in the Journal of Ecology and Environment (link), providing a scientific foundation for the methodologies we are now scaling to new regions.

With each expedition, we are building not only a clearer picture of where Amazonian stingless bees live and the threats they face, but also a strong network of Indigenous scientists and community conservationists who will safeguard this knowledge and these species for the future. This is strengthened with the co-creation of a Biocultural Community Protocol together with our Indigenous partners and environmental lawyer partners (Earth Law Center) which will continue to gather key data and knowledge to serve as the basis for bee and ecosystem protection.

For our pilot work (recently published), we used ARCGIS to map the wild beehives identified, and overlaid national deforestation data to understand the risk endangering bees. For this next-phase, that incorporates multiple regions and thus allows us to look at climate impact, we aim to go even further. We would love to get anyone's thoughts and inputs on this, so we can empower more Peruvian local youth to lead this impactful science work!

Thank you!

Rosa 

@Rob_Appleby follow these instructions to get your Sprout badge!

If you're curious about InVEST I just created a page in "The Inventory" (see link on this page) with some resources and just wanted to hlighlight some potentially interesting models that are worth having a look at!

• Habitat Quality: this model uses habitat quality and rarity as proxies to represent the biodiversity of a landscape, estimating the extent of habitat and vegetation types across a landscape, and their state of degradation.
• Habitat Risk Assessment: this model evaluates risks posed to coastal and marine habitats in terms of exposure to human activities and the habitat-specific consequence of that exposure for delivery of ecosystem services.

• Crop Pollination: this model focuses on wild pollinators providing an ecosystem service. The model estimates insect pollinator nest sites, floral resources, and flight ranges to derive an index of pollinator abundance on each cell on a landscape. If desired, the model can creates an index of the value of these pollinators to agricultural production, and attributes this value back to source cells.

   

Project Update — Sensors, Sounds, and DIY Solutions (sensores, sonidos y soluciones caseras)

We continue making progress on our bioacoustics project focused on the conservation of Patagonian amphibians, thanks to the support of WILDLABS. Here are some of the areas we’ve been working on in recent months:
(Seguimos avanzando en nuestro proyecto de bioacústica aplicada a la conservación de anfibios patagónicos, gracias al apoyo de WildLabs.Queremos compartir algunos de los frentes en los que estuvimos trabajando estos meses)

1. Hardware

One of our main goals was to explore how to improve AudioMoth recorders to capture not only sound but also key environmental variables for amphibian monitoring. We tested an implementation of the I2C protocol using bit banging via the GPIO pins, allowing us to connect external sensors. The modified firmware is already available in our repository:

👉 https://gitlab.com/emiliobascary/audiomoth

We are still working on managing power consumption and integrating specific sensors, but the initial tests have been promising.

(Uno de nuestros principales objetivos fue explorar cómo mejorar las grabadoras AudioMoth para que registren no sólo sonido, sino también variables ambientales clave para el monitoreo de anfibios. Probamos una implementación del protocolo I2C mediante bit banging en los pines GPIO, lo que permite conectar sensores externos. La modificación del firmware ya está disponible en nuestro repositorio:
https://gitlab.com/emiliobascary/audiomoth
Aún estamos trabajando en la gestión del consumo energético y en incorporar sensores específicos, pero los primeros ensayos son alentadores.)



2. Software (AI)

We explored different strategies for automatically detecting vocalizations in complex acoustic landscapes.

BirdNET is by far the most widely used, but we noted that it’s implemented in TensorFlow — a library that is becoming somewhat outdated.

This gave us the opportunity to reimplement it in PyTorch (currently the most widely used and actively maintained deep learning library) and begin pretraining a new model using AnuraSet and our own data. Given the rapid evolution of neural network architectures, we also took the chance to experiment with Transformers — specifically, Whisper and DeltaNet.

Our code and progress will be shared soon on GitHub.

(Exploramos diferentes estrategias para la detección automática de vocalizaciones en paisajes acústicos complejos. La más utilizada por lejos es BirdNet, aunque notamos que está implementado en TensorFlow, una libreria de que está quedando al margen. Aprovechamos la oportunidad para reimplementarla en PyTorch (la librería de deep learning con mayor mantenimiento y más popular hoy en día) y realizar un nuevo pre-entrenamiento basado en AnuraSet y nuestros propios datos. Dado la rápida evolución de las arquitecturas de redes neuronales disponibles, tomamos la oportunidad para implementar y experimentar con Transformers. Más específicamente Whisper y DeltaNet. Nuestro código y avances irán siendo compartidos en GitHub.)

3. Miscellaneous

Alongside hardware and software, we’ve been refining our workflow.

We found interesting points of alignment with the “Safe and Sound: a standard for bioacoustic data” initiative (still in progress), which offers clear guidelines for folder structure and data handling in bioacoustics. This is helping us design protocols that ensure organization, traceability, and future reuse of our data.

We also discussed annotation criteria with @jsulloa to ensure consistent and replicable labeling that supports the training of automatic models.

We're excited to continue sharing experiences with the Latin America Community— we know we share many of the same challenges, but also great potential to apply these technologies to conservation in our region.

(Además del trabajo en hardware y software, estamos afinando nuestro flujo de trabajo. Encontramos puntos de articulación muy interesantes con la iniciativa “Safe and Sound: a standard for bioacoustic data” (todavía en progreso), que ofrece lineamientos claros sobre la estructura de carpetas y el manejo de datos bioacústicos. Esto nos está ayudando a diseñar protocolos que garanticen orden, trazabilidad y reutilización futura de la información. También discutimos criterios de etiquetado con @jsulloa, para lograr anotaciones consistentes y replicables que faciliten el entrenamiento de modelos automáticos. Estamos entusiasmados por seguir compartiendo experiencias con Latin America Community , con quienes sabemos que compartimos muchos desafíos, pero también un enorme potencial para aplicar estas tecnologías a la conservación en nuestra región.)