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The WILDLABS Community Base is the ideal place to get oriented with the all that our community platform offers, hear about news and opportunitys, and to meet new friends and collaborators. 

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discussion

Undergrad team available to tackle conservation problem statements

Colleen R O'Donnell

21 January 2025 6:37pm

Is anyone out there interested in pairing with an undergrad team of students to help you tackle your research problem?This is through the University of Maryland's environmental...

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Lucie Gallegos

31 January 2025 9:38pm

Hi Colleen,

Thank you for sharing this exciting opportunity. I am Lucie, International Development Manager of Natural Solutions. We are a company at the intersection of biodiversity and tech for over 15 years. We specialize in developing digital tools for conservation organizations, researchers, and policymakers, helping them collect, analyze, and visualize biodiversity data. More recently, we’ve been exploring new possibilities and began to analyze what we could propose to businesses to support them in understanding their dependencies and impacts on nature (impact assessment platforms that help companies quantify their environmental footprint, define relevant indicators, and develop actionable biodiversity strategies etc)

We would be interested in exploring whether this topic could be relevant for your students.

Would this align with your students' interests and skill sets? Additionally, could you share more details on the timeline and any constraints—when would the project start, and what are the expected deliverables?

Looking forward to discussing this further! My email is lucie_gallegos@natural-solutions.eu 
Don't hesitate to reach out!

Best, 

Lucie

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discussion

App for WILDLABS?

Hugo Markoff

6 January 2025 8:56am

I have no idea if this has been a previous topic, but I couldn’t find anything about it. Are there any plans on making a WILDLABS app? The reason why I ask is that I love the...

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Jake Burton

10 January 2025 1:45pm

Hi Hugo! A WILDLABS App has certainly been on our wish-list of things we could build. Depending on funding availability in the future of course. 

At the moment we are working on a number of big improvements and additions to the website, focussing on enhancing access to learning materials and existing content. Such as a new self-led training course system and navigation/discoverability improvements.

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discussion

WILDLABS Awards 2024 - Statistics

Adrien Pajot

15 January 2024 5:24pm

At 23:55 yesterday, the application window for WILDLABS 2024 came to a close. First, I would like to thank the 191 applicants and everyone who played a role in spreading the...

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Adrien Pajot

4 September 2024 2:48pm

I forgot to add this graph made by @alexrood and shared on our socials a long time ago! 

 

Aucun texte alternatif pour cette image

Adrien Pajot

10 January 2025 10:15am

After discussing with a potential applicant for 2025, I realised that I never shared the stats about the number of applications per category. Here they are: 

  • 35 projects for 7 grants of $10,000
  • 107 projects for 5 grants of $30,000 (we selected 3)
  • 53 projects for 2 grants of $60,000 (we selected 3)
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discussion

Canopy access or tree climbing resources for arboreal research

Anne Dangerfield

12 September 2024 8:51pm

Hi everyone.I am a professional tree climbing/canopy access trainer and work in conservation tech. I've climbed or trained climbers in several countries to deploy arboreal...

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John Simeone

4 October 2024 10:04pm

Hi all! Folks may be interested in the Cornell Tree Climbing program that is a part of Cornell Outdoor Education. Not only does Cornell offer training, and have a bunch of online resources, but they have also facilitated groups of scientists to collect canopy samples and data. 

Anne Dangerfield

9 January 2025 10:50pm

Hi Dominique,

Thanks for your responses and congratulations on getting trained! 

I can see that speaking directly with a climbing professional could be the most beneficial because what climbing methods and equipment you may need will depend very much on individual project goals and budgets. Did you end up speaking with your trainers about your field research goals and what climbing methods may be best for you? 

Anne Dangerfield

9 January 2025 11:27pm

Hi Mark, thanks for responding. I think you've identified one of the most difficult parts of research climbing: maintaining your climbing skills and knowledge between field sessions. 

My husband is an experienced arborist and practices his skills almost daily. I am not an arborist, so I schedule climbing time to keep my abilities fresh and my husband is there to assist. But I know it's difficult for individual researchers to practice on their own and they should only be climbing alone if experienced and not in a remote area.

However, it's possible to train researchers to safely climb in the field for multiple field sessions. My husband and I trained a group of climbers in Cameroon in January, 2024. The goal was to train four climbers who would go into the remote rainforest for several weeks and set up camera traps. They would deploy and retrieve arboreal cameras at different survey locations over two years. We needed to train the teams to operate safely and independently (without an instructor present) in very remote areas. 

To train them sufficiently, my husband and I spent 1 month in Cameroon with the field team. We did a few days of basic training at a location near the city and then went with them on their initial camera deployment where we continued field training for 2.5 - 3 weeks. Before going to Cameroon, we had several discussions to determine what climbing method and equipment would best meet their data collection goals and were appropriate for their field site and conditions. We taught them basic rescue scenarios. We also set a climbing practice schedule for the team to maintain their climbing and rescue skills. We strongly emphasized to their management that the field team needed access to the climbing gear and needed to follow the practice schedule. Since the training, the team successfully finished two other camera trap surveys and is planning their third.

This was a lot of up-front training and cost. However, these climbers are now operating on their own and can continue operating for the foreseeable future. I think a big reason is receiving extensive training, tailored to their needs. General tree-climbing courses are great for learning the basics, but they'll never be a substitute for in-field, tailored training.

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article

Meet the winners of The Boring Fund 2024! 

WILDLABS Team

17 December 2024 7:36pm

It’s finally time to announce the winners of The Boring Fund 2024! From 16 September to 9 October, we received a whopping 227 applications for the first-ever round of The Boring Fund, run in partnership with Arm. ...

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Frank van der Most

18 December 2024 6:17pm

Congratulations to the winners! Good luck to winners and applicants alike with your efforts to get the boring but necessary stuff done!
Ben Weinstein

24 January 2025 5:12am

Our workshop is up and applications are here: https://weecology.github.io/AI_for_ecology_workshop/aplicar.html
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funding

Tech4Nature Award

Frank van der Most

26 November 2024 12:14am

This is an award for work done within categories of technological innovation in area-based conservation, tech use for red-listed species conservation, and the inclusion of indigenous peoples, local communities and...

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