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Technology for Wildlife Conservation

Introduction

An overview of the field and its importance

Authors
Affiliations
3point.xyz
Aegis Conservation

Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to technology for wildlife conservation. We explore the intersection of modern technology and wildlife conservation efforts, establishing the foundation for understanding how innovative tools and approaches can support conservation goals. The chapter also overviews the book’s purpose, audience, and chapters.

Keywords:wildlife conservationtechnologyintroductionoverview

Tech4wildlife

Watch just about nature documentary from the past five decades and you will see technology on display to track, monitor and capture wildlife and nature for all to see. Recent BBC episodes with David Attenborough also feature behind the scenes work to find wildlife and film them during intimate moments or epic displays of migration and landscapes. Tech, for better or worse, has infiltrated our entire lives from tracking steps, to our own human movements. So why not use it for good to protect species, their habitats, and the planet, that are all threatened by over consumption, poaching, wildfire, land clearing for agriculture, and ulimately climate change, all human induced?

We believe it should be, but most recently rewilding (Prior & Ward (2016) and Holmes et al. (2020)) and wilderness (Nash (2014), Woods (2005)) proponents before them make the case that nature should be an autonomous, self-willed systems free from anything created by humankind. Self regulating community (Soulé & Noss (1998)).

Pettorelli making rewilding fit for policy also mentions self-regulating system dynamics ( Pettorelli et al. (2018))

As Piel & Wich (2021) mention in their seminal Conservation Technology book, the Anthropocene, and accompanying digital age, represent an extreme threat and wondeful opportunity to the conservation of wild nature.

Interoperability & IoT

Integration of hardware and software

Setting up mesh networks and internet of things is critical over a conservation landscape

Data

Scaling

Rewilding

Or make this a caveats section. Truly rewilded self-willed wilderness should not have tech. Also caveats on the use of surveillance, top-down enforceent, and the availability of tech in developing countries.

Book & audience

About the book Why this book? Audience Authors

Chapters

Sentence summary of each chapter

  1. 📖 Introduction.

  2. 🔧 Basics. What is tech for wildlife and what are the basics for setting it up for monitoring, enforcement, and community-based conservation.

  3. 🗺️ Geospatial. A brief primer on using open source geospatial software and data for conservation and how to integrate geospatial systems with other conservation technology.

  4. 🛠️ Hardware. What hardware do you need? How do you diy tech that isn’t available? What hardware is available that works off the shelf? Sub-chapters on camera traps, acoustic sensors, eDNA?

  5. ⚖️ Enforcement. Using tech to reduce or eliminate illegal wildlife trade, land clearing, and other activities that degrade wild nature. Change name to monitoring?

  6. 🤖 AI. Move closer to front of book? Add machine learning?

  7. TBD

  8. TBD

  9. TBD

  10. Cases. Cases highlighting tech4wildlife implementation in the field, including what went well, what didn’t, and lessons learned.

Citation

Please cite as

Free & Open Source

Software and hardware and democratization of data

MyST

This book was made using MyST, a free and open-source package that lets anyone build beautiful, publication-quality books and articles from computational content. Thank you, MyST for this wonderful resource!

Credits

Table of contents

References
  1. Prior, J., & Ward, K. J. (2016). Rethinking rewilding: A response to Jørgensen. Geoforum, 69, 132–135. 10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.12.003
  2. Holmes, G., Marriott, K., Briggs, C., & Wynne-Jones, S. (2020). What is Rewilding, How Should it be Done, and Why? A Q-method Study of the Views Held by European Rewilding Advocates. Conservation and Society, 18(2), 77. 10.4103/cs.cs_19_14
  3. Nash, R. F. (2014). Wilderness and the American mind. Yale University Press.
  4. Woods, M. (2005). Ecological restoration and the renewal of wildness and freedom. In Recognizing the autonomy of nature: Theory and practice (pp. 170–188). Columbia University Press.
  5. Soulé, M., & Noss, R. (1998). Complementary goals for continental conservation. Wild Earth, 8(Fall), 39–64.
  6. Pettorelli, N., Barlow, J., Stephens, P. A., Durant, S. M., Connor, B., Schulte to Bühne, H., Sandom, C. J., Wentworth, J., & du Toit, J. T. (2018). Making rewilding fit for policy. Journal of Applied Ecology, 55(3), 1114–1125. 10.1111/1365-2664.13082
  7. Piel, A., & Wich, S. (2021). Conservation and technology: an introduction (pp. 1–12). Oxford University PressOxford. 10.1093/oso/9780198850243.003.0001
Welcome to Tech4wildlife!
Authors
Welcome to Tech4wildlife!
2. Basics