Current monitoring methods either don’t have the capacity to scale globally, or simply don’t have the required resolutions––and fine-scale data is often not within reach.
Copyright by Mark Minevich, www.forbes.com
The world’s biodiversity status is in crisis mode––and Covid-19 has only exacerbated this reality. Covid has served as a stark reminder that negative interactions with species can directly impact our lives. As of 1970, the world has seen a significant 68% average decline of birds, amphibians, mammals, fish, and reptiles. Just in the Americas alone, natural ecosystems provide humans an estimated $24 trillion worth of economic value every year, equivalent to the entire gross domestic product. As wildlife changes occur, all ecosystems become less resilient and are more at risk. Without resilient ecosystems, agriculture, water and wildlife-based tourism are left in significantly vulnerable shape.
Current monitoring methods either don’t have the capacity to scale globally, or simply don’t have the required resolutions––and fine-scale data is often not within reach. Governments and administrations have been slow to install measures; meanwhile, private sector employers desire the competitive advantages that come with ‘green’ credentials, but don’t always know how to contribute effectively, leading to green-washing and wasted resources. In addition, employees prefer to work for companies with a good environmental record and welcome a chance to volunteer and participate, but engagement is often symbolic or short-term.
Traditionally, researchers have been working tediously by completing manual tasks including identifying specific animals from photo shoots for population studies to classifying the camera photos gathered by field workers. We need to pool together a smarter global effort led by the UN, public and private sectors to bring about accurate, data driven current, global maps and hotspots of species numbers and distributions to develop prescriptive global conservation strategies. If we are to save our world’s biodiversity, now more than ever, it is time to mobilize fully-integrated and solutions for wildlife conservation––and to ensure that these solutions are sustainable for decades to come.
Unlike the domains of finance, science, healthcare and the like, wildlife conservation is often left in the dark when it comes to advanced
In addition to Intel corporation, companies like WildTrack are also pioneering data driven biodiversity solutions. According to WildTrack, the organization’s “
Lastly, it is important to outline that all applied
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