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WILDLABS logoWildlabs.net : The conservation technology network

Group

Funding and Finance / Feed

The number one problem in nature conservation is the need for more money or access to funding. This group aims to help all WILDLABS community members with funding and financing their projects. The group is called Funding and Finance to draw attention to the possibilities of funding (i.e., grants, awards, and other gifts)  and finance (loans and venture capital investment in nature conservation projects and start-ups). These topics should be seen in their wider contexts, including that of a project or organisation’s income or business model.

Group curators

funding

Peoples Trust For Endangered Species

Henry Rees

22 April 2024 2:57pm

PTES will be accepting new applications for Conservation Insight Grants in 2024. The deadline for applications is Sunday 25th August at 23.59 (UK time). Applications will be assessed at a meeting in mid-October and...

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discussion

Passionate engineer offering funding and tech solutions pro-bono.

Krasi

23 January 2024 12:06pm

My name is Krasi Georgiev and I run an initiative focused on providing funding and tech solutions for stories with a real-world impact. The main reason is that I am passionate...

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Danilo

26 January 2024 3:18pm

Hi Krasi! Greetings from Brazil!



That's a cool journey you've started! Congratulations. And I felt like theSearchLife resonates with the work I'm involved round here. In a nutshell, I live at the heart of the largest remaining of Atlantic forest in the planet - one of the most biodiverse biomes that exist. The subregion where I live is named after and bathed by the "Rio Sagrado" (Sacred River), a magnificent water body with a very rich cultural significance to the region (it has served as a safe zone for fleeing slaves). Well, the river and the entire bioregion is currently under the threat of a truly devastating railroad project which, to say the least is planned to cut through over 100 water springs! 



In face of that the local community (myself included) has been mobilizing to raise awareness of the issue and hopefully stop this madness (fueled by strong international forces). One of the ways we've been fighting this is through the seeking of the recognition of the sacred river as an entity of legal rights, who can manifest itself in court, against such threats. And to illustrate what this would look like, I've been developing this AI (LLM) powered avatar for the river, which could maybe serve as its human-relatable voice. An existing prototype of such avatar is available here. It has been fine-tuned with over 20 scientific papers on the Sacred River watershed.



And right now myself and other are mobilizing to manifest the conditions/resources to develop a next version of the avatar, which would include remote sensing capacities so the avatar is directly connected to the river and can possibly write full scientific reports on its physical properties (i.e. water quality) and the surrounding biodiversity. In fact, myself and 3 other members of the WildLabs community have just applied to the WildLabs Grant program in order to accomplish that. Hopefully the results are positive.



Finally, it's worth mentioning that our mobilization around providing an expression medium for the river has been multimodal, including the creation of a shortfilm based on theatrical mobilizations we did during a fest dedicated to the river and its surrounding more-than-human communities. You can check that out here:



 

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/850179762



 

Let's chat if any of that catches your interest!

Cheers!

Krasi

2 February 2024 1:22pm

Hi Danilo. you seem very passionate about this initiative which is a good start.
It is an interesting coincidence that I am starting another project for the coral reefs in the Philipines which also requires water analytics so I can probably work on both projects at the same time.

Let's that have a call and discuss, will send you a pm with my contact details

There is a tech glitch and I don't get email notifications from here.

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discussion

Q&A: UK NERC £3.6m AI (image) for Biodiversity Funding Call - ask your questions here

Stephanie O'Donnell

13 September 2023 4:10pm

In our last Variety Hour, Simon Gardner, Head of Digital Environment at NERC, popped in to share more about their open £3.6m funding call supporting innovation in tools for...

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Andrew Quitmeyer

21 September 2023 4:27pm

This is super cool! Me and @Hubertszcz and @briannajohns and several others are all working towards some big biodiversity monitoring projects for a large conservation project here in panama. The conservation project is happening already, but hubert starts on the ground work in January and im working on a V3 of our open source automated insect monitoring box to have ready for him by then.

 

I guess my main question would be if this funding call is appropriate/interested for this type of project? and what types of assistance are possible through this type of funding (researchers? design time? materials? laboratory field construction)

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discussion

Digital + core business = biodiversity or ecosystem benefits?

Francesca Fernandez

29 August 2016 11:01pm

I'm doing some research for an article I'm co-authoring and was wondering if anyone knows of cases where a company has used digital technology...

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zbaynhamherd

6 October 2016 5:11pm

Hi Francesca,

I don't think I have the exact answers you are looking for, but 1) maybe where companies have switched from paper/flyer marketing to solely web-based adverts (possibly reducing waste). 2) Check out some of the applications currently being developed around blockchain technology (which underpins the digital currency Bitcoin), specifically in regards to potentially optimising efficiency or energy usage or supply chain transparency (with knock-on effects for improving environmental certification schemes). 

Provenance are a start-up currently developing such a model, and may be worth investigating. Here in Edinburgh Uni there is a also blockchain project working with Oxfam on something related to reducing waste/increasing efficiency. 

 

Stephanie O'Donnell

6 October 2016 5:28pm

The blockchain example is a really great point - one that didn't come immediately to mind for me, even though I read about Provenance just a week or two ago. There is a good write up of the project in the link I've included below - it's worth reading, particularly if you're interested in or working on marine conservation and sustainable fisheries. 

 

 

 

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