How Technology is Protecting Biodiversity

Hey everyone!

This week I’m back with a round-up of the technology helping to protect the wildlife threatened by habitat loss and climate change.

It’s now estimated that over a million species of plants and animals are at risk of extinction, many before 2100. This means that today’s children could be the last generation to see hundreds of thousands of species.

But there is hope, with some incredible technology being developed to help preserve and protect wildlife over the coming decades, Here are some of the biggest areas we can turn to technology for support:

Gathering Data

Nowadays, most successful conservation tends to start with researchers collecting vast amounts of data to gain an accurate view of what’s going on. Whilst we’ve been using technology like camera traps and sensors for decades, modern tech is helping to take this to the next level.

Camera trap systems are now complex operations with hundreds of cameras, all remotely feeding back millions of images that provide insights into areas like populations and migration patterns.

Advanced sensors are also allowing us to capture data at a scale previously impossible, with data as granular as water quality, soil temperature, and more all being built into large data models to figure out the impact human action is having.

Analysing Data: Turning Insights into Action

Gathering data is a crucial first step, but it's only half the battle when it comes to data. Making sense of it all is where the real breakthroughs happen.

Machine learning and data analytics are developing at incomprehensible speeds, and companies like Wildlife Insights are making the most of this by using AI to help process millions of camera trap images, helping to automatically tag species and identify patterns far quicker than a whole team of human researchers ever could. This ultimately means faster decisions can be taken when it comes to conservation projects.

An underwater equivalent is the team at OceanMind, who are using satellite images and AI to monitor emissions from shipping and even flag illegal fishing patterns.

A slightly more worrying note is “predictive analysis”, with scientists starting to paint a data-backed picture of what lies ahead. Whilst it’s not exactly a promising future, it’s one that we need to understand and share with the world if we face a change of turning things around.

Restoring habitats

Protecting the wildlife we still have left is crucial, but with so much biodiversity already lost, many companies are starting to focus on what we can do to restore like biodiversity.

Mast Reforestation (formally Droneseed) have been using Drones to help reforest land devastated by wildfires. Their large-scale drones can access places hard to reach on foot and disperse seed pods equipped with nutrients, moisture, and soil enhancers to start regrowth with higher success rates than seen before.

Projects like the Great Green Wall Initiative are making the most of mapping tools to help reintroduce vegetation in areas where they have the highest chance of success.

Public science

One of the most exciting trends in recent years is the rise in public science, where everyday people like you and I contribute to data collection and analysis. Platforms like iNaturalist and eBird allow users to log sightings of plants, birds and animals in their local areas, creating a vast database that can help to track migration patterns, identify population trends and even discover new species (this happens more than you’d expect).

Seabin invites volunteers to report plastic pollution in local waterways, ensuring that their trash-collecting devices are deployed in the most impactful areas. There are also several apps used in coastal communities to log sightings of endangered species like turtles and sharks, providing a consistent stream of vital data for researchers.

I’d highly recommend checking out what conservation efforts you can get involved with in your local area and encourage your friends and family to do the same!

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Which of these innovations excites you the most? Or is there a piece of wildlife tech you think more people should know about?

Thanks for reading, I’ll catch you next week!
James

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