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The Conservation Technology Working Group (CTWG) achieved official status as a working group of the Society at the beginning of this year.
The Working Group aims to promote the agenda of conservation technology, leading a broad conversation about what the conservation community wants technology to do for the discipline, identifying opportunities and threats that current, emerging and future technologies bring. We aim to maintain a bidirectional role: on the one hand, being the voice of the SCB in the space of conservation technology; on the other hand, synthesizing key information to keep SCB members (and the broader conservation community) updated about progress and issues in this area, and to foster developments.
Properly deployed and used, technology can massively improve monitoring and data collection of wildlife, habitats and threats, empower citizen science, and boost conservation research and on-the-ground action. The ideas driving the CTWG align with other individuals and organisations in a common attempt to catalyse the potential of technology for conservation. To this effect, we will: promote networking and discussions (including at SCB regional and national conferences), coordinate interdisciplinary activities between different players (conservationists, technologists, data-modelers, online platforms dealing with conservation technology), promote the uptake and appropriate efficient use of conservation technology, and drive and help coordinate the development of affordable technology solutions for conservation.
I’m excited to present the current CTWG Board members, which include a diverse mix of backgrounds and roles, from academia to conservation practice in NGO and private sectors, from biology to engineering. These are: Vice-president Ted Schmitt (Vulcan Inc.), Secretary Eric Fegraus (Conservation International), Treasurer Gurutzeta Guillera-Arroita (University of Melbourne), and Members at large Alasdair Davies (Arribada Initiative), Cassie Hoffman (Conservation X Labs), Carla Archibald (University of Queensland; student representative) and Stephanie O’Donnell (WILDLABS). And finally, I’m José Lahoz-Monfort (University of Melbourne), current president of the Working Group.
New to conservation technology? Want to learn more? This recent open-access piece (“Conservation technology: the next generation”), published as open-access in the SCB journal Conservation Letters by CTWG member Oded Berger-Tal and I, adds to the growing chorus of voices calling for the conservation community to move to the driving seat, becoming innovators and developers of technology that is fit for our needs. It includes links to seminal papers on conservation technology, some motivating recent developments, and organisations & online platforms that are already contributing to making the technology revolution a reality for conservation!
You can learn more about the CTWG on the SCB website, and if you’re interested in conservation technology and keen to contribute, you can join the Working Group. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter (@SCBtechnology)!