Biodiversity conservation

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Climate change is a global issue with urgent implications. To effectively combat climate change, maintaining natural carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots is of paramount importance. However, managing and conserving these regions with traditional methods is inadequate due to their large scale and complex dynamics. The challenge lies in leveraging data and technology to understand, predict, and manage the health of these natural assets, and integrating these insights into policy and conservation action.

Natural carbon sinks - forests, oceans, and other habitats - absorb approximately 2.6 gigatons of CO2 per year, accounting for nearly a third of all carbon dioxide emissions from human activities. Biodiversity hotspots, representing only 2.3% of Earth's land surface, house about half of the world's endemic plant species and nearly 43% of bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species. However, these critical ecosystems are under threat due to human activities, with a 68% decrease in global wildlife populations since 1970, according to WWF's Living Planet Report 2020. In the Amazon rainforest, often referred to as the planet's lungs, approximately 17% has been lost in the last 50 years, primarily due to deforestation. 

Currently, efforts to track, manage, and conserve these regions are impeded by outdated methods, underfunded projects, and lack of real-time data. Traditional ground-based surveys are resource-intensive, infrequent, and often incomplete. Satellite imagery offers a broader view but often lacks the resolution and immediacy necessary to capture real-time changes or small-scale threats. Furthermore, data from these sources is often not integrated, leading to fragmented understandings and ineffective interventions. 

We are seeking innovative solutions that leverage data and technology to effectively manage and conserve our invaluable natural carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots. These ecosystems play a crucial role in mitigating climate change and preserving biodiversity, but they face significant threats due to human activities and environmental changes. We are looking for proposals that harness the power of data analytics, remote sensing, machine learning, or other technological advancements to enhance monitoring, protection, and restoration efforts. The goal is to ensure the long-term sustainability and resilience of these critical ecosystems.

We are looking for: 

• Innovative solutions that combine data science, machine learning, remote sensing, and other emerging technologies to accurately map, monitor, and manage carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots. These solutions should aim to provide real-time, high-resolution data on environmental changes, biodiversity loss, and carbon sequestration rates, allowing for timely and effective responses.

• Technologies that not only collect and analyse data but also offer predictive capabilities, helping us understand potential future trends and impacts based on current actions and environmental changes. 

• Solutions that can work at both small and large scales, identifying individual threats (such as illegal logging) while also providing a macro view of overall ecosystem health. We also seek frameworks that facilitate the integration of this data into conservation policy and action, fostering cross-sector collaboration and ensuring that these invaluable insights are utilised effectively to conserve our planet's critical ecosystems.

• We also welcome ideas on how to structure and implement the data collection, storage, sharing, and usage policies to ensure accessibility and privacy, while maintaining the integrity and value of the data for its intended purposes.

These technological solutions should aim to be sustainable and cost-effective, enabling their use by organisations and governments of all sizes, in regions around the world.

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