Competing for rainforest conservation: Q&A with XPRIZE’s Kevin Marriott
SINGAPORE — It’s been a hectic few weeks for Kevin Marriott. On a humid May morning in Singapore, he shuttles between two locations at the city’s Windsor Nature Park. At…
Conservation Technology News
Wildtech provides news and information on how the conservation community can better leverage technology. Mongabay is a non-profit.
Woodpeckers for fire recovery? A new online tool tells you how
Imagine a burned forest in California. The charred remains of trees, the soot on the forest floor and the smoke in the air might make it seem like all is…
A Twitter bot tracks meat production in the Brazilian Amazon
Elon Musk may claim to hate them, but can Twitter bots be put to good use? A new tool that aims to monitor and expose deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest…
Bioacoustic analysis made easier: Q&A with Rainforest Connection CEO Bourhan Yassin
For scientists and ecologists studying wildlife, listening to the sounds of nature is all the rage now. And with good reason. The exponential growth in the use of audio to…
Honey production sweetens snow leopard conservation in Kyrgyzstan
SHAMSHY, Kyrgyzstan — “I was only 9 when I first saw a snow leopard with my father. He was a ranger bringing injured animals found in the mountains to the…
Seafloor life abounds around hydrothermal vents hot enough to melt lead
On March 12, a team of scientists gathered in the control room of the RV Falkor (too), an oceanographic research vessel operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute. They watched the…
How do you study one of the world’s rarest whales?
Nearly twice the size of Africa, the North Pacific seems to be endless. But somewhere in that vast ocean, 30 eastern North Pacific right whales (Eubalaena japonica) live their lives,…
The more degraded a forest, the quieter its wildlife, new study shows
Tropical forests awaken the senses. The scent of moist earth, the feel of sticky, humid air, and the sight of an array of colorful life-forms are visceral delights. But perhaps…
Feathered forecast: Tech tools comb weather data for bird migrations
Ask Andrew Farnsworth about the origins of the BirdCast project, and he would describe it as “ancient history.” The year 1999, when the project was conceived, is a far cry…
Return of the GEDI: Space-based, forest carbon-mapping laser array saved
It was down to the wire for the GEDI mission, but it now seems like the force may have prevailed. In a last-minute decision, NASA has decided to extend the…
Floating solar project on Philippines natural lake brings hope — and questions
Boats and water hyacinths aren’t the only ones floating in the Philippines’ Laguna Lake. In some areas of Los Baños and Bay, small-scale floating solar photovoltaic (FPV) installations can be…
Uterine implants and underwater ultrasounds aim to demystify shark births
At first glance, the device resembles an egg-shaped game. But the birth-alert-tag is anything but a toy. Inside, it holds technology that collects data aimed at informing conservation strategies for…
As conservation technology grows, so does Mongabay’s coverage
This week on the podcast, Mongabay’s newest staff writer Abhishyant Kidangoor, with experience covering health, climate change, and the environment in South Asia, joins to discuss his new focus on…
Bioacoustics in your backyard: Q&A with conservation technologist Topher White
Ever wondered about the furry animal you saw scurrying through your backyard? Or the bird singing outside your window? A new eco-device developed by conservation technologist Topher White aims to…
To save Hainan gibbons, Earth’s rarest primate, experts roll out the big tech
Emmanuel Dufourq had a gargantuan task at hand in mid-2019. He had the job of listening to 6,000 hours of audio data collected from Bawangling National Nature Reserve in the…
On wildlife and the Metaverse, some ethical considerations (commentary)
In the fight against climate change, will the Metaverse be helpful or hinder environmental efforts? Essentially an updated internet and virtual world where participants can pose as avatars and interact…
Can gaming solve a puzzle for camera trap conservationists? (commentary)
A few years ago I was catching butterflies in a strip of rainforest in Panama. One day the camp welcomed a team of jet-lagged vagabonds dragging their rollers full of…
Scientists map nearly 10 billion trees, stored carbon, in Africa’s drylands
For the first time ever, researchers have plotted out the locations and tabulated the carbon stocks of more than 9.9 billion individual trees spread across the dry belt of land…
Carbon market intermediaries act with little transparency, according to report
Only about 10% of the exchanges, brokers, resellers and cryptocurrency vendors that buy and sell voluntary carbon market credits share the precise commissions and profits they make in these exchanges,…
France seeks EU okay to fund biomass plants, burn Amazon forest to power Spaceport
Seemingly contrary to French President Macron’s green image, France is asking for an EU policy exemption to make biomass energy for Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana — resulting in the clearing and burning of rainforest.
Machine learning makes long-term, expansive reef monitoring possible
Machine learning can help conservationists monitor climate impacts across large swaths of marine ecosystems over extended periods of time, a task never possible before. The Delta Maps machine learning tool…
Podcast: Goodbye to blue skies? The trouble with engineered solutions
From pumping aerosols into the atmosphere to combat climate change to gene-editing invasive species, human beings continue to conjure up technological or “miracle” fixes to ecological ills, many of which…
Electricity day and night: Solar power is changing isolated Amazon communities
TERRA FIRME, Brazil — Growing up, Maria de Fátima Batista often studied in the dark, using a candle or lantern for light because the riverine community where she lives in…
Carbon markets entice, but confuse, corporations: Report
Corporations see investments in voluntary carbon markets as a key part of their climate strategy, according to a new report from the environmental nonprofit Conservation International and the We Mean…
‘Grumpiest cat’ leaves its calling card on the world’s highest mountain
KATHMANDU — If you were a grumpy cat, you’d probably want to avoid company. And if you were the world’s grumpiest, as David Attenborough once described the elusive manul, what…
For Tanzania’s traditional beekeepers, modern hives just don’t buzz
Tanzania is Africa's second-biggest producer of honey, and to get it to the next level, the country’s government and aid agencies want beekeepers to adopt hanging-frame beehive designs to increase…
Accelerating biodiversity-positive impact: A conversation with Silverstrand Capital’s Kelvin Chiu
Among the planetary challenges we face, biodiversity loss often takes a back seat to climate change. However, interest in “nature-based solutions” is rising as more people recognize the opportunities presented…
New app tells donors what communities need to stop deforestation: Q&A with Health In Harmony
How can improving access to doctors and nurses for an Indigenous community in Borneo better protect the region’s fast-depleting rainforest and wildlife? A new app developed by nonprofit organization Health…
Democratizing the deep sea: Q&A with Ocean Discovery League’s Katy Croff Bell
At first, Katy Croff Bell and her team had just wanted to make underwater cameras to give to school students from communities living along the Pacific Ocean. But when the…
Podcast: A bittersweet bioacoustics bonanza
One of the most promising conservation technologies emerging in recent years is bioacoustics – the use of acoustic recording technologies to study the behavior, distribution, and abundance of wildlife –…
