Ten years ago, we couldn't have imagined how tools like machine learning, eDNA, and satellites would advance and transform conservation work. Now technology is advancing faster than ever, and as tools become smaller, lighter, and more affordable, it's vital to have a space where community members can discuss the next big thing, share ideas, compare tool options, and tell the story of their experiences - positive, negative, and anything in between - while using new technologies.
In 2021, the WILDLABS State of Conservation Tech report detailed what tools show the most promise according to community members, as well as what tools are currently seen as the most effective. And as new tools enter the field, we're excited to see how this data will change over time, and how this group grows over time as well.
Our State of Conservation Tech research also discusses something called the "Hype Cycle" - the pattern that occurs when a new technology bursts onto the scene, promises to be an exciting solution, encounters challenges as new users adopt the tool and put it into practice beyond just theory, and eventually settles into its most effective state as users acquire the right skills to use it to its actual potential. Machine learning, one of the most promising technologies, is currently in the middle of its own hype cycle, and we see community members working through their own hurdles to incorporate ML into their work effectively. Despite what you may think, this Hype Cycle can also be positive for tech development, as it means that users have big ideas for new tools, and with the right resources and skills, they can work toward bringing those ideas to life. And as our community members experiences the Hype Cycle for various tools at their own paces, we hope this group will also serve as a place to discuss that process and overcome hurdles together.
Ready to discover new possibilities? Join our Emerging Tech group now and get to know your forward-thinking conservation tech peers!
Header photo: Internet of Elephants
Currently a data scientist in industry working on mechanistic models of risk, previously worked on modeling coral reefs. I am interested in the potential for emerging technologies and new ideas to help us solve environmental crises.
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- @claumemo
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- @Phillip_Swart
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I'm a conservationist working in the Vulture conservation space in South Africa with a huge passion for technology.
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- @Prabisha
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Dedicated research scientist with over 8 years of experience in cartography, spatial analysis, and statistical modeling to tackle environmental, public health, and socio-economic challenges. Passionate about leveraging geospatial technology to drive impactful solutions.
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- @hannahilea
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Ecodash.ai is an artificial intelligence platform for ecological modeling, design, and restoration.
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- @Stelios
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I am a Software Developer living in Berlin, Germany. Previously studied Informatics (BSc) and Data Science (MSc) in Athens, Greece.
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- @lvgliarose
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Bat Conservation Trust
Research Manager at Bat Conservation Trust
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- @sehuebner
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Wildlife Ecologist and Program Manager at the Smithsonian Institution
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I have mixed experiences from 20+ years doing SATCOM and other IT roles with the US Army. I also have 4 years experience working in the marine environment doing forage fish spawning research. My goal is to advance my abilities in AI to bring into the realm of wildlife research.
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Funding
Explore BOEM data, build analytic tools, and recommend solutions for sea turtle relocation trawling approaches to reduce incidental risk. Prize: $40,000
21 September 2022
Article
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Announces Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize Winners
Stephanie O'Donnell
From an invasive reptile trapping system to a nucleic acid barcode that identifies poached and trafficked wildlife products anywhere in the world, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Theodore Roosevelt (TR) Genius...
21 September 2022
Funding
Amazon Sustainability call for proposals — Fall 2022
Stephanie O'Donnell
Amazon Sustainability is welcoming proposals related to climate risk/resilience, life cycle assessment, circular strategies, and more. Selected PIs receive unrestricted funds, no more than $80,000 USD on average
20 September 2022
Article
Collecting Critically Endangered Plants on Cliffs using a Drone
Guillaume Charron
This technology was recently tested in Kauai, Hawaii, with the National Tropical Botanical Garden and has successfully collected from 5 critically endangered species that were otherwise inaccessible.
16 September 2022
Careers
Senior Innovation Officer, EPA
Stephanie O'Donnell
This Senior-Level (SL) position is located in the Office of Research and Development (ORD), Office of Science Advisor, Policy and Engagement (OSAPE). The location will be determined after a selection has been made...
14 September 2022
Article
Mara Predators Hackathon
Alessandro Mazzi
APPLY NOW! The Sovereign Nature Initiative has partnered with the Kenya Wildlife Trust to experiment with emerging technologies to support their predators' conservation work.Challenges will focus on:1. Lion...
30 August 2022
Careers
Conservation Technology Research Internship
Meredith Palmer
Boost cons tech capacity at an international NGO! Fauna & Flora International is offering a paid three-month internship to consolidate and share best practices for the application of emerging hardware and software...
26 August 2022
Article
Ceres Wild Rhino application
Kim Lane
An update on Ceres Tags products that are being used in conservation
22 August 2022
Careers
Lead Software Engineer for ARISE
Chantal Huijbers
Job opening at ARISE, an innovative program in the Netherlands to build a digital infrastructure for biodiversity data and services
19 August 2022
Careers
Post Doctoral researcher - DNA species detection technology
Natalie Schmitt
Are you interested in joining a team dedicated to changing how conservation is conducted around the world by developing new genetic technologies for conservation, and being part of the new wave of scientists paving a...
15 August 2022
Careers
Lead Software Engineer, Wildlife Insights
Nicole Flores
Are you creative, love new challenges and have experience developing software? The Wildlife Insights team is hiring! Join a diverse team of ecologists, data scientists, engineers and machine learning experts to protect...
10 August 2022
Link
Interesting thought piece from Mark Minevitch (AI for Good) et al. on the promise of AI and other ICT innovation to deliver on climate challenges, existing ICT sector emissions - and the three types of carbon lock-in...
8 August 2022
June 2025
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Nalini
event
Joel Masselink
July 2025
September 2024
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Vanesa Reyes
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Vanesa Reyes
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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| Thanks so much!! |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Community Base, Data management and processing tools, Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Geospatial, Software Development | 2 years 7 months ago | |
| I don't think KEH would influence accelerometry at all.One other way to think about it is - the KEH is a movement sensor itself.The GPS is quite a severe factor in the energy... |
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Animal Movement, Emerging Tech, Sensors | 2 years 8 months ago | |
| Any results coming out of this survey that you would like to share? |
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Community Base, Emerging Tech | 2 years 9 months ago | |
| We’re so excited to see what comes of the growing discussions on sustainability started throughout our community. As the WILD... |
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Emerging Tech | 2 years 10 months ago | |
| Some folks doing work in this space - Wildlife Drones, Conservation Drones, UAV Wild, AfricanDrones, Oceans Unmanned, Geonadir. |
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Drones, AI for Conservation, Citizen Science, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech | 2 years 11 months ago | |
| Dear Community,Together with Hackster.io, Seeed Studio is very happy to jointly organize “IoT Into the Wild Contest for Sustainable Plant... |
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AI for Conservation, Connectivity, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 2 years 11 months ago | |
| A bit opposite of what you're looking for but according to this, the share of non-NFC enabled phones was 10% in 2020. They don't state their source unless you pay, but I suspect... |
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Animal Movement, Emerging Tech | 2 years 11 months ago | |
| Job description WPS seeks a game developer to work with our videography team and existing library of wildlife 360 video content to... |
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Emerging Tech | 3 years 3 months ago | |
| That's pretty cool Can you send us the info at contact@natural-solutions.eu happy to help |
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Emerging Tech | 3 years 10 months ago | |
| I only know Internet of Elephants! Have you heard about them? I think their new competitor is Google, have you seen? https://9to5google.com/2020/07/10/google-3d-animals-list... |
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Emerging Tech | 4 years 9 months ago | |
| Hi - my name is Rogue Marechal, founder of HAL-13, a game board publisher specifically interesting in connecting the gaming community to the world and challenges of wildlife... |
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Emerging Tech | 6 years 10 months ago | |
| We've recently published in Scientific American on some of the ways AR/MR can be used to support wildlife. Great to have any feedback... |
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Emerging Tech | 7 years 5 months ago |
Introducing the 2023 Conservation Tech Showcase
11 May 2023 5:06pm
2023 F5 Tech for Good Grant Application Now Open
10 May 2023 12:28pm
ICCB 2023 WILDLABS Workshop: Bridging Sectors for Movement Ecology Innovation
9 May 2023 8:37pm
Development of average speed devices
GRO is the story of what on Earth is going on
5 May 2023 1:50pm
Machine Learning Researcher - Computer Vision (Remote)
2 May 2023 8:49pm
Silverstrand Capital's Biodiversity Accelerator+ Programme - Deadline Extended to 5th May 2023
2 May 2023 3:24pm
[Recordings Now Available!) EarthRanger User Conference
27 April 2023 5:52am
Looking to contribute
27 April 2023 2:41am
The GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation 2.0
21 April 2023 11:32am
Rapid due diligence for forest carbon projects
21 April 2023 10:51am
Catch up with The Variety Hour: April 2023
21 April 2023 10:42am
The 59th Annual Meeting of Illinois Chapter of The Wildlife Society
12 April 2023 5:24am
Advice on afforable LiDAR scanners for Amazon forest surveys
5 April 2023 3:47pm
Office & Warehouse Exec
5 April 2023 6:22pm
The WILDLABS Variety Hour: March 2023 - YouTube
30 March 2023 4:04pm
Global shortage of Raspberry Pis - What are the alternatives
3 November 2022 10:27am
28 March 2023 9:37pm
Have you considered Arduinos?
29 March 2023 10:13am
UPDATE: The Banana Pi didnt work out for us as it was not possible to track back all the components and ensure that they were responsibly sourced. The Rock board did work for us and we were able to port our system onto this. We will be rolling out units using this over the summer. It also looks like Raspberry Pis are coming back on line and we were able to secure a bulk order for deliver mid-summer
29 March 2023 10:14am
Yes, but for our needs that are not powerful enough
NFTs for Carbon Credits
16 March 2023 3:24am
24 March 2023 12:41pm
Hi James - I'm working for Regen Network at the intersection of blockchain and ecosystem regeneration and am developing an Environmental Stewardship initiative that might be of interest. I'm also familiar with a lot of related work people are doing around the world, including projects focused on NFTs. I think NIHT Inc. is using or at least thinking about using blockchain tech for forest protection in PNG. There is a lot of innovation going on in this space, but there are also a lot of sketchy projects so navigating the options isn't all that straightforward. One of these days, it would be good to have a Wildlabs session on blockchain and conservation. Let me know how I can help.
Catch up with The Variety Hour: March 2023
23 March 2023 11:09am
Skylight | LATAM & Caribbean Partner Relationship Manager
10 March 2023 5:21pm
Using acoustic monitoring to track infectious disease risk
8 March 2023 1:29pm
Proposals wanted for Innovation in Practice
6 March 2023 10:34pm
Moveapps: EMAC23 Coding Challenge
3 March 2023 7:58am
3 March 2023 3:12pm
Super initiative! I hope you get a lot of entries to this coding challenge!
6 March 2023 7:53am
Thanks Lars! Look forward to any entries from you and your colleagues. If you have an questions or suggestions, let me know.
6 March 2023 1:11pm
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 this time... Some day perhaps ;)
The WILDLABS Variety Hour: February 2023 - YouTube
3 March 2023 11:24am
Moveapps EMAC23 Coding Challenge – Participate now!
3 March 2023 7:45am
US Sales Manager for Fishing Tech (full time)
27 February 2023 3:04pm
EU Sales Manager for Fishing Tech (full time)
27 February 2023 2:57pm
Block chains and NFTs in wildlife conservation
16 February 2023 11:17am
16 February 2023 12:18pm
Hey Janet!
We had a slightly intense discussion at one of our recent variety hour shows, which I belive @Netty_Cheruto already sent your way. But in case anyone else spots this thread and has the same question, it's here:
What specifically were you looking to learn more about? If it's just about NFTs and blockchain in general, the work the Unearthodox team (formerly known as the Luc Hoffmann Institute) are doing might be worth having a look at. They got in contact with me recently to share their project ‘Digital Disruption and Future of Conservation NGOs project’ and the digital toolkit that has recently been launched as part of this project.
The project is focused on exploring the potential of emerging digital technologies, including blockchain, to transform conservation practices and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of conservation NGOs. The project aims to understand how these technologies can be used to benefit the conservation sector and support the work of conservationists around the world.
The digital toolkit has been designed as a basic introduction to blockchain concepts and their potential use for nature conservation. It includes information and resources to help conservation practitioners understand the opportunities and challenges of using blockchain technology in their work.
If you have specific questions, pop them in a reply and I'll see if someone from their team can pop in here and answer them!
Steph
24 February 2023 12:24pm
Hi Janet,
I've written quite a bit about this from the perspective of conservation and conservation science finance. You can see some of the articles here www.moonjellyacademy.org and more on my LinkedIn pages.
LP
27 February 2023 9:45am
Hi all,
Thank you so much for sharing the resources, these are quite insightfull
Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s Annual Meeting 2023
20 February 2023 10:56pm
6 April 2023 6:21pm
Hi Jeremy,
With a quick search I've found the paper linked below. It looks like equipments such as Livox MID are sufficient for plot-level analyses, but not for individual trees. Also, it has performed worse in dense canopies and broadleaf forest, thus I believe we won't have a technology capable of doing what you aim for this amount of money (< $1000) in a few years from now.
I hope someone give us an alternative, though. :D
Best,