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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Careers
EU Sales Manager for Fishing Tech (full time)
SafetyNet Technologies
We develop Precision Fishing technology to help commercial fishermen catch their target species more consistently & sustainably.
27 February 2023
Article
The Variety Hour: 2023 Lineup
Stephanie O'Donnell
You’re invited to the WILDLABS Variety Hour, our monthly community event connecting you to the exciting projects, research, and ideas that are happening in conservation tech right now. Brought to you with the support of...
15 February 2023
Funding
Amazon Sustainability Accelerator
Stephanie O'Donnell
Are you building a sustainability start-up and want to maximise your impact? We want to support you! We are looking for startups developing sustainability-focused products or recycling technologies that help keeping...
15 February 2023
Careers
Technology to End the Sixth Mass Extinction. Salary: $104k-144K; Location: Washington DC or Seattle WA, potential hybrid; 5+ years of Full stack development experience; Deadline March 15th - view post for full job...
10 February 2023
Article
Call for Proposals: 'Can Technology Save Biodiversity?'
Stephanie O'Donnell
Frontiers in Conservation Science is calling for submissions for a Research Topic that aims at examining the paradoxical relationship that has been established in recent years between the flagships of new technology...
10 February 2023
Link
Tech for a sustainable future: The challenges and opportunities ahead
Stephanie O'Donnell
Interesting read on how tech is contributing to climate change and what companies are doing to improve sustainability.
10 February 2023
Article
Call for Proposals: 'Special Feature: Innovation in Practice'
Stephanie O'Donnell
Do you have any new methods or examples of practical applications of emerging new technologies that can help solve ecological problems? Submit a proposal to the new OA Special Feature of Ecological Solutions and...
7 February 2023
Careers
Are you excited by the potential for new technologies to help monitor the natural world? Do you enjoy communicating your passion for technology and nature with diverse audiences? We are seeking an enthusiastic...
2 February 2023
Article
We need more people using Earth observation data
Cassie Anderson
The role of no-code geospatial software in the fight against climate change
24 January 2023
Careers
Conservation Technology Intern (Vietnam)
Meredith Palmer
WILDLABS and Fauna & Flora International are seeking an early career Vietnamese conservationist for 12-month paid internship position to grow and support the Southeast Asia regional community in our global...
11 January 2023
Careers
PhD position (m/f/d) in Insect Ecology and Conservation
Andrew Fairbairn
This position focuses on the ecology aspect of the project, while a second PhD in Ilmenau will be dealing with programming/AI development. Because of the high temporal resolution of our data, we can investigate how land...
9 January 2023
Careers
Job: maker / workshop technician
Duncan Wilson
We are looking for someone who enjoys the craft of making to come and help run our London based lab.
5 January 2023
June 2025
event
Nalini
event
Joel Masselink
July 2025
September 2024
event
Vanesa Reyes
event
Vanesa Reyes
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hi Dan, Not right now but I can envision many uses. A key problem in RS is data streams for validation and training of ML models, its really not yet a solved problem. Any... |
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Emerging Tech, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Camera Traps, Connectivity, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Geospatial, Sensors | 3 months ago | |
| Hey Wildlabers,Our group aims to create a low-cost hydrophone for research, education and citizen science. We are soon to build our first... |
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Conservation Tech Training and Education, Emerging Tech, Software Development | 3 months 2 weeks ago | |
| @HeinrichS there’s still time for you or anyone else to make a funding submission to the wildlabs 2025 grants ❤️❤️❤️I haven't applied for wildlabs funding, but I would love for... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Emerging Tech | 4 months 1 week ago | |
| Steve and I are looking to develop a low-cost benthic drift camera with a live video feed. Our hope is to use an acoustic modem to give us a low quality feed for navigation /... |
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Marine Conservation, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Connectivity, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 5 months ago | |
| Bird Monitoring Data Exchange is a standard often used for birds data. |
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AI for Conservation, Data management and processing tools, Emerging Tech | 5 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hats off to your team for this absolute game-changing technology! We rescue stray and wild animals in Taiwan, and the bulk of our work is saving animals maimed by wire snares... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Wildlife Crime | 6 months ago | |
| No problem at all Yu (@JY) and good luck with your studies! Happy to discuss this and any other ideas any time.All the best,Rob |
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Sensors, Animal Movement, Connectivity, Drones, Open Source Solutions, Emerging Tech | 6 months 3 weeks ago | |
| I've been trying to build a a framework that would then allow for the integration of technological advancements, AI and all, in a manner... |
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Emerging Tech | 7 months ago | |
| Jared's answer is excellent IMHO. One level down, you have a couple of options. One is to charge for the convenience of buying a finished, assembled, and tested product, that's... |
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Emerging Tech, Funding and Finance, Open Source Solutions | 7 months 1 week ago | |
| Odor based methods would be interesting. Provided they didn't need to be replenished too often.We find varied stimulus prevents habituation. |
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AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 7 months 4 weeks ago | |
| I found this interesting |
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AI for Conservation, Emerging Tech | 9 months 2 weeks ago | |
| Getting to you. |
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Climate Change, Emerging Tech | 9 months 2 weeks 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,