RESOLVE hosted the sixth in our ongoing Sustainability Breakfast series. The event – “Eat a Bear Claw, Save an Elephant” – focused on the nexus of technology and wildlife biodiversity challenges.
6th Sustainability Breakfast Features New TechnologiesMon, 03 Nov 2014 13:52:00 PSTLast Thursday, RESOLVE hosted the sixth in our ongoing Sustainability Breakfast series. The event – “Eat a Bear Claw, Save an Elephant” – focused on the nexus of technology and wildlife biodiversity challenges.RESOLVE intern Nathan Hahn kicked us off with a brief introduction to RESOLVE’s fleet of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) currently being tested for their potential to guide elephants away from farmers’ crops and people, an innovative strategy for mitigating human-elephant conflict in Tanzania. RESOLVE is currently training park rangers in Tanzania to use these UAVs – check back on our blog and Facebook page in the coming weeks for updates and photos from Nathan’s trip!In another example of how technology is improving both the accessibility and the reliability of conservation data, Benji Jones, from the World Resource Institute (WRI), shared insights on WRI’s groundbreaking Global Forest Watch (GFW) program, which combines NASA satellite imagery, crowd sourcing, country statistics, and other sources to provide a free and comprehensive map and database of wildlife and natural resources around the world. This open-source database allows users to overlay and analyze data from a variety of sources and to contribute their own stories and validate on the ground the remotely-triggered alerts of forest loss from GFW. RESOLVE is proud to be one of Global Forest Watch’s 45 partners working on this exciting and unique tool with huge potential for biodiversity conservation.RESOLVE’s Director of Biodiversity and Wildlife Solutions, Eric Dinerstein, elaborated on some of the applications of GFW’s work to biodiversity conservation. Since the majority of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity lives in forested areas, the information generated through GFW can help us to pinpoint the critical areas for conservation action (such as corridors between tiger habitats) and monitor encroachment on protected areas. RESOLVE is using GFW maps to identify degraded lands that are suitable for rubber, oil palm, and other agricultural industries. Shifting production onto already degraded lands can reduce pressure on forested areas, which benefits biodiversity and reduces carbon emissions. Complementary work by BWS will use the information from this analysis to help identify areas with intact forests that also have high numbers of species and natural communities (mainly in the tropics), to provide both “Go” and “No-Go” zones for future commodity production.Discussion and Q&A with participants in the room supported RESOLVE’s belief that solutions must be designed in consultation with representatives from all sectors, including conservationists, civil society, government, and industry – to understand constraints of each sector and design solutions that are practical and workable.Find out more about how BWS is applying technology to wildlife and forest conservation by clicking here.
At RESOLVE, we’re here to tackle the toughest global challenges. The ones nobody else wants to touch. Where people are in conflict and planet problems are stuck. We’re here to unstick them. It’s not easy. It takes grit and ingenuity. And finding and working with the right partners. But we’re not called RESOLVE for nothing.
