Welcome to the United Nations
Wildlife Conservation Society in cooperation with IUCN and the Permanent Mission of France to the UN
Register for the side-event here
The event will bring together leading scientists, engineers and practitioners to illustrate how a range of promising new technologies and knowledge systems (including traditional and local knowledge) can help advance the conservation goals and targets in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, with a view to ‘living in harmony with nature’. These technologies and knowledge systems can also improve measurement of key indicators used to track progress on SDGs 14 and 15, such as the Red List, and to inform key global nature conservation standards.
Technologies of interest include: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, which is being used in the field to analyze information collected by wildlife conservationists, from camera trap and satellite images to audio recordings; Networked sensors, which allow camera traps, acoustic recorders, tracking devices and other conservation hardware to connect online, forming a comprehensive picture of animal movements and behavior; Environmental DNA (eDNA), which is being used by conservationists to collect a wealth of biodiversity data quickly and easily, simply by scanning samples of water or soil. Traces of animal DNA can reveal the presence of previously unobserved species in a local area; Drones, which have multiple conservation applications, including mapping of remote ecosystems like wetlands, large-scale and precision planting of trees, and ecosystem restoration; Lasers and lidar (light-detection and ranging), which can yield highly detailed three-dimensional visuals that conservationists can use to study landforms, vegetation, seafloors, and riverbeds.
