AI for Conservation

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Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used in the field to analyse information collected by wildlife conservationists, from camera trap and satellite images to audio recordings. AI can learn how to identify which photos out of thousands contain rare species; or pinpoint an animal call out of hours of field recordings - hugely reducing the manual labour required to collect vital conservation data.

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With new technologies revolutionizing data collection, wildlife researchers are becoming increasingly able to collect data at much higher volumes than ever before. Now we are facing the challenges of putting this information to use, bringing the science of big data into the conservation arena. With the help of machine learning tools, this area holds immense potential for conservation practices. The applications range from online trafficking alerts to species-specific early warning systems to efficient movement and biodiversity monitoring and beyond.

However, the process of building effective machine learning tools depends upon large amounts of standardized training data, and conservationists currently lack an established system for standardization. How to best develop such a system and incentivize data sharing are questions at the forefront of this work. There are currently multiple AI-based conservation initiatives, including Wildlife Insights and WildBook, that are pioneering applications on this front.

This group is the perfect place to ask all your AI-related questions, no matter your skill level or previous familiarity! You'll find resources, meet other members with similar questions and experts who can answer them, and engage in exciting collaborative opportunities together.

Just getting started with AI in conservation? Check out our introduction tutorial, How Do I Train My First Machine Learning Model? with Daniel Situnayake, and our Virtual Meetup on Big Data. If you're coming from the more technical side of AI/ML, Sara Beery runs an AI for Conservation slack channel that might be of interest. Message her for an invite.

Header Image: Dr Claire Burke / @CBurkeSci

Explore the Basics: AI

Understanding the possibilities for incorporating new technology into your work can feel overwhelming. With so many tools available, so many resources to keep up with, and so many innovative projects happening around the world and in our community, it's easy to lose sight of how and why these new technologies matter, and how they can be practically applied to your projects.

Machine learning has huge potential in conservation tech, and its applications are growing every day! But the tradeoff of that potential is a big learning curve - or so it seems to those starting out with this powerful tool!

To help you explore the potential of AI (and prepare for some of our upcoming AI-themed events!), we've compiled simple, key resources, conversations, and videos to highlight the possibilities:

Three Resources for Beginners:

Everything I know about Machine Learning and Camera Traps, Dan Morris | Resource library, camera traps, machine learning
Using Computer Vision to Protect Endangered Species, Kasim Rafiq | Machine learning, data analysis, big cats
Resource: WildID | WildID

Three Forum Threads for Beginners:

I made an open-source tool to help you sort camera trap images | Petar Gyurov, Camera Traps
Batch / Automated Cloud Processing | Chris Nicolas, Acoustic Monitoring
Looking for help with camera trapping for Jaguars: Software for species ID and database building | Carmina Gutierrez, AI for Conservation

Three Tutorials for Beginners:

How do I get started using machine learning for my camera traps? | Sara Beery, Tech Tutors
How do I train my first machine learning model? | Daniel Situnayake, Tech Tutors
Big Data in Conservation | Dave Thau, Dan Morris, Sarah Davidson, Virtual Meetups

Want to know more about AI, or have your specific machine learning questions answered by experts in the WILDLABS community? Make sure you join the conversation in our AI for Conservation group!

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@PiaHoff

Working in relation to ecosystem services

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@jdomingo
| He/Him

I am an enthusiast for nature, technology development, biodiversity conservation and nature inspired design. I posses a technical and environmental background, and I am looking to explore the potential that advance technology has to empower the field of nature conservation.

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@och3k
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@RafaelCampos

CIBIO-InBio

I am a PhD student working on wolf bioacoustics. I am combining Audiomoths and Deep Learning into more efficient wolf monitoring protocols. My main field of interest is population ecology.

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@nadyam
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Michigan State University

Conservation geneticist at Michigan State University. Co-founder of iCatch. Solving problems in monitoring, traceability, and enforcement through rapid species identification tech.

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@HayleyWhyte

Passionate advocate for nature and experienced communicator, looking to explore opportunities to leverage technology in wildlife and marine conservation

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@nlubcker
| Dr

Results-Driven R&D Project Manager | Data scientist | I'm a versatile professional with 10 years of global experience in conservation and research.

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@mariahmeek
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Michigan State University

Dr. Mariah Meek is the PI and co-founder of iCatch, an Associate Professor at Michigan State University, and the Director of Research at The Wilderness Society.

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@Alex.S
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MSc Marine Biologist and Data Scientist, Co-Founder and CSO & CTO of Galene Pathways

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@lgovs

PhD candidate studying the ethics of tech in human-animal interactions.

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@Hansa
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Studio Pixel

AI integration architect, AI product manager. I've built the front-end of this website 😁

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Description	Activity	Replies	Groups	Updated
X-Prize for Rainforests	I know I'm very late, but I only discovered this recently. Is your team still active/accepting new members?	+24	AI for Conservation	4 years 4 months ago
Tech Tutors: How do I use pattern matching analysis to label acoustic data with RFCxArbimon?	Hi @pmnguyen1224 , thanks for reaching out and checking out the system! We would love to help ensure that you're able to get pattern matching to work for...		Acoustics, AI for Conservation	4 years 5 months ago
Realtime video analysis using ML on Raspberry PI	Hi Andrew, Yo need to train a lightweight DNN model for bird flocks which can then be deployed on Raspberry Pi. For initial starters, you can look into the below tutorial:...		AI for Conservation	4 years 5 months ago
Google unveils search engine for open data	This is great, thanks for sharing.		AI for Conservation	4 years 6 months ago
Upcoming AI for Conservation Events and Webinars	AI for Climate Forum: Lightning Talks Bonnie Lei, Microsoft AI for Earth - 4pm GMT, October 30 Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/...		AI for Conservation	4 years 6 months ago
Tech Tutors: How do I train my first machine learning model?	Hi Wildlabbers, Just popping in to share this very cool primer for beginners to embedded machine learning from our tutor Daniel Situnayake! If you're interested in...		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps	4 years 7 months ago
Tech Tutors: How do I get started using ML for my camera traps? Building Accurate Project-Specific Models	Great talk! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some high schoolers have done small AI projects(s) and have interest in the wildlife. What resources would you all suggest to further...		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps	4 years 10 months ago
Webinar 11PST 3/20 - Deep Learning for Airborne Tree Detection	DeepForest docs are here. https://deepforest.readthedocs.io/ Welcome to have a look. My experience is that individual trees cannot be distinguished in satellite...		AI for Conservation	5 years 1 month ago
Open, challenging dataset for audio classification	Steph, thank you so much for this, this is wonderful :) Really, really apreciate you sharing this with me :) Diving into all of the wonderful resources from you, thank you so very...		AI for Conservation	5 years 1 month ago
Help collate list of Ecology/Conservation Data Sets for grad students	A call put out over on Twitter by Jesse Alston might be of interest here - both for conservationists and grad students. Looks like...		AI for Conservation	5 years 1 month ago
Automated species detection from camera traps	This can be done, happy to help :) But I think I need to understand the situation a little bit more. Do you already have the data for training / inference? Do you have any...		AI for Conservation	5 years 1 month ago
Team for Building of ML app for horse identification and conservation	Hi there this post on Conservation X labs recently came up on designing softwarre for individual horse recognition: https://...		AI for Conservation	5 years 3 months ago

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