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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/open-source/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Open-source</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/open-source/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Low-cost satellite forest monitoring for all: Q&#038;A with CLASlite creator Greg Asner</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/low-cost-satellite-forest-monitoring-for-all-qa-with-claslite-creator-greg-asner/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/low-cost-satellite-forest-monitoring-for-all-qa-with-claslite-creator-greg-asner/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2020 13:57:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/16111526/Asner2-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=229089</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Green, Illegal Logging, Infrastructure, Open-source, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Research, Satellite Imagery, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Satellites are an excellent tool for monitoring forests. Those who work in the areas of forest management, policy development and environmental conservation are increasingly making use of these eyes in the sky to track logging, deforestation, and other forest disturbance events. However, it takes specialized tools to turn the green blur of raw satellite images [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Satellites are an excellent tool for monitoring forests. Those who work in the areas of forest management, policy development and environmental conservation are increasingly making use of these eyes in the sky to track logging, deforestation, and other forest disturbance events. However, it takes specialized tools to turn the green blur of raw satellite images into useful information. Enter CLASlite, an automated system for converting satellite imagery from its raw format into detailed maps that can be searched for specific forest disturbance events. CLASlite aims to make deforestation and forest degradation monitoring accessible to everyone. A sample CLASlite workflow showing the transition from raw satellite images to more detailed information on forest degradation and deforestation. Image courtesy of Greg Asner. “CLASlite is, without a doubt, the fastest and easiest way to take a look at any forest from Earth&#8217;s orbit,” Greg Asner, CLASlite’s creator and director of Arizona State University’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, told Mongabay. CLASlite is wide-ranging in its application. For example, it has been used to promote forest stewardship and predict land-use change in the Amazon, to examine the effects of oil palm plantation development on land cover and carbon flux in Indonesian Borneo; and to determine the spatial drivers of deforestation in Suriname. Asner, who recently joined forces with Rajnish Khanna of i-cultiver to create a low-cost, user-funded model to keep the CLASlite software running and accessible, spoke with Mongabay about the application and recent changes to the project. Greg Asner, director of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/low-cost-satellite-forest-monitoring-for-all-qa-with-claslite-creator-greg-asner/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/low-cost-satellite-forest-monitoring-for-all-qa-with-claslite-creator-greg-asner/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-229089</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New toolkit identifies multiple species from environmental DNA</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/new-dna-toolkit-identifies-multiple-species-from-environmental-dna/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/new-dna-toolkit-identifies-multiple-species-from-environmental-dna/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Aug 2019 10:40:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/08/03100422/Channel_Islands_marine_life__Ed-Bierman-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=221009</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, DNA, Fungi, Monitoring, Oceans, Open-source, Plants, Research, Software, Surveying, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and CALeDNA have developed a toolkit designed to quickly identify the species in a biological community by simultaneously analyzing the environmental DNA (eDNA) from multiple species from a single analysis of a sample of water or soil. Their aim is to eliminate the need for researchers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and CALeDNA have developed a toolkit designed to quickly identify the species in a biological community by simultaneously analyzing the environmental DNA (eDNA) from multiple species from a single analysis of a sample of water or soil. Their aim is to eliminate the need for researchers to sort and process multiple eDNA sequences independently, thus saving time and money. They published a description of the open-source software tool, called the Anacapa Toolkit, as well as results of a field test in the kelp forests off southern California. Kelp forest at Anacapa Island off southern California. Image by Dana Roeber Murray via Flickr. CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0. eDNA is the genetic material shed by animals and plants into the surrounding ecosystem, usually water or soil, through their skin, scales, feces or pollen. eDNA has proved increasingly useful for identifying particularly aquatic species found at a given site. A single one-liter (one quart) sample of water can contain eDNA for many species and is a non-invasive means of collecting data. The software toolkit is a series of modules that can analyze DNA sequences from multiple locations (loci) on the genes extracted from the eDNA in the sample and compare them to a customized reference database of sequences of known species. It produces a spreadsheet of all the species found in the sample for which it has a known reference sequence. Lead author Emily Curd said the outputs of eDNA research in the Anacapa toolkit are standardized and eliminate many of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/new-dna-toolkit-identifies-multiple-species-from-environmental-dna/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/new-dna-toolkit-identifies-multiple-species-from-environmental-dna/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-221009</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A ‘FitBit for squid’ could help track the ocean’s squishier species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/a-fitbit-for-squid-could-help-track-the-oceans-squishier-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/a-fitbit-for-squid-could-help-track-the-oceans-squishier-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jan 2019 17:26:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marianne Messina]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/01/21170731/feature_fr-WHOI-video-2_crop-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=214765</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Fisheries, Invertebrates, Jellyfish, Marine, Marine Animals, Monitoring, Oceans, Open-source, Research, Solutions, Squid, Technology, Tracking, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Research on soft-bodied marine invertebrates such as squid and jellyfish has been slow in coming. Squid are keystone taxa and important food sources for myriad larger species, said T. Aran Mooney, associate scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) in Massachusetts. Squid respond to changing climate and ocean forces, Mooney told Mongabay, and in spite [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Research on soft-bodied marine invertebrates such as squid and jellyfish has been slow in coming. Squid are keystone taxa and important food sources for myriad larger species, said T. Aran Mooney, associate scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) in Massachusetts. Squid respond to changing climate and ocean forces, Mooney told Mongabay, and in spite of recent ocean changes, their populations “are doing OK.” So learning how these animals adapt to change may have significance for climate science. A longfin inshore squid (Doryteuthis pealeii) wearing an experimental tracking tag schools with others in north Atlantic waters. Video screenshot image courtesy of Daniel Cojanu/Undercurrent Productions. The commercial value of information about squid behavior is also increasing. Squid are a short-lived animal, making their populations hard to predict from year to year. The global fishing industry harvests squid by the millions of metric tons a year, and maintaining sustainable squid stocks has been at the center of more than one international squabble. Yet scientific data about why and where squid move remain scarce. One reason for this is that traditional monitoring systems and tracking tags aren’t suited for a squid’s soft, invertebrate body. After years of “making do” with the available technology for his squid studies, Mooney created a versatile tag that allows him to research squid behavior. With the help of Kakani Katija, an engineer adapting the tag for jellyfish at California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), Mooney’s team is creating a replicable system flexible enough to work across a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/a-fitbit-for-squid-could-help-track-the-oceans-squishier-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/a-fitbit-for-squid-could-help-track-the-oceans-squishier-species/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-214765</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Machine learning tool helps prioritize plants for conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/machine-learning-tool-helps-prioritize-plants-for-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/machine-learning-tool-helps-prioritize-plants-for-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jan 2019 19:13:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/01/03184656/Aus_Kalbarri-small-everlastings-on-rocks_smaller-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=214357</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, data, GPS, Mapping, Open-source, Plants, Research, Solutions, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If you know the animals in your neighborhood but not the plants, you’re not alone. Scientists have documented nearly 400,000 plant species and expect to identify many more. But unlike well-known endangered animals, such as elephants, tigers, and parrots, we don’t currently understand the conservation status of more than 90 percent of the world’s plant [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If you know the animals in your neighborhood but not the plants, you’re not alone. Scientists have documented nearly 400,000 plant species and expect to identify many more. But unlike well-known endangered animals, such as elephants, tigers, and parrots, we don’t currently understand the conservation status of more than 90 percent of the world’s plant species. Plant growth and communities drive the ecosystems, food chains, and agriculture on every continent, yet we don’t know the conditions that what causes them to thrive or disappear. Unique desert plants, as well as giant redwood trees, help make California a region of globally high plant diversity. Image by Sue Palminteri/Mongabay. Understanding how threatened a specific plant species is requires broad information on where it lives and what it looks like. But finding plants in the wild to determine where they are and where they aren’t requires time, money, and expertise. A multi-institutional research team used the power of open-access databases and machine learning to predict the conservation status of more than 150,000 plants. In their study published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team tested whether their machine learning algorithm could track patterns in plant locations, climatic patterns, habitat features, and morphologies – their form and structure – and use that information to identify species that were likely at risk of extinction. “There is an urgent need for more efficient methods of identifying at-risk species,” the authors said in their paper. “To meet this need, we developed and evaluated a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/machine-learning-tool-helps-prioritize-plants-for-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/machine-learning-tool-helps-prioritize-plants-for-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-214357</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pod-cast: New app streams whale songs for web users in real time</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/pod-cast-new-app-streams-whale-songs-for-web-users-in-real-time/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/pod-cast-new-app-streams-whale-songs-for-web-users-in-real-time/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Nov 2018 14:06:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/11/19135703/resident-KW_ShawnMcCready_CC-BY-ND-2.0_feature-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=212413</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Northwest and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Artificial Intelligence, Bioacoustics, Citizen Science, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Noise Pollution, Oceans, Open-source, Research, Sensors, Solutions, Technology, Whales, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers have developed a web-based application to enable citizen scientists to listen to the sounds of killer whales in the northeast Pacific in real time. Publicly launched on Nov. 1, after several months of testing, the app livestreams audio from underwater microphones, called hydrophones, located in the Salish Sea off the U.S. state of Washington, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Researchers have developed a web-based application to enable citizen scientists to listen to the sounds of killer whales in the northeast Pacific in real time. Publicly launched on Nov. 1, after several months of testing, the app livestreams audio from underwater microphones, called hydrophones, located in the Salish Sea off the U.S. state of Washington, through the internet to a user’s laptop, phone or tablet. The Orcasound project produced the app to help raise awareness and understanding about ocean noise, and where and when humans and whales overlap, by broadening the audience listening for the signals of known pods of killer whales (Orcinus orca) and other novel sounds, such as other marine animals or human activity. A killer whale, or orca, &#8220;porpoising&#8221; in the Hood Canal waterway, south of the Salish Sea in the U.S. state of Washington. Leaping out of the water can actually be energy-efficient for marine animals traveling at high speeds. Image by Minette Layne via Wikimedia Commons CC 2.0. Scott Veirs, an oceanographer and bioacoustics specialist, and his father, Val Veirs, a physicist, lead the project, which started with funding from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The project’s partners now include United States and Canadian fisheries agencies and several nonprofit organizations, including scientists who have studied ocean sounds in the region for more than 15 years to call attention to the damage caused by noise pollution in the ocean. The younger Veirs, Orcasound’s lead researcher, presented the new web app and spoke about&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/pod-cast-new-app-streams-whale-songs-for-web-users-in-real-time/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/pod-cast-new-app-streams-whale-songs-for-web-users-in-real-time/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/11/19121752/clear-calls-clicks_SRKW_from-ScottVeirs.mp3" length="70296" type="audio/mpeg" />
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					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-212413</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Decoding the language of bats key to their conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/decoding-the-language-of-bats-key-for-their-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/decoding-the-language-of-bats-key-for-their-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Oct 2018 16:54:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Javier Lyonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/10/08152603/wind-turbines-uruguay001Credit-MVOTMA_small-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=210942</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Uruguay]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Artificial Intelligence, Bats, Bioacoustics, Conservation, data, Energy, Monitoring, Open-source, Research, Sensors, Surveying, Technology, Wildtech, and Wind Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[South American bats speak dialects different from those of their North American counterparts. In response, a group of scientists has developed the first artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm for acoustic identification of bat species in Uruguay. It is available online, under a free license and in open-source code. Moreover, says team leader biologist Germán Botto of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[South American bats speak dialects different from those of their North American counterparts. In response, a group of scientists has developed the first artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm for acoustic identification of bat species in Uruguay. It is available online, under a free license and in open-source code. Moreover, says team leader biologist Germán Botto of the Universidad de la República de Uruguay, new recordings collected by scientists using the algorithm in wind farm studies will enhance the system’s proficiency in identifying species. With its large range, from Argentina north to Mexico, and ability to survive in human-modified environments, the Argentine brown bat (Eptesicus furinalis) is common and thriving. Image by Karin Schneeberger, Wikimedia Commons, CC 3.0. With its large range, from Argentina north to Mexico, and ability to survive in human-modified environments, the Argentine brown bat (Eptesicus furinalis) is common and thriving. Image by Karin Schneeberger, Wikimedia Commons, CC 3.0. What prompted their efforts? Conservation of the region’s flying animals. “Windmill farms are a menace for birds…and bats,” Botto told Mongabay. The use of acoustics in the country, starting in 2013, “gives us much more power for the environmental evaluation and monitoring of windmill farms,” he added. The design of a machine learning algorithm to predict bat species present based on their calls provides a standard tool for all the teams that work on environmental impact studies in wind farms. “We began developing this work according to the local reality,&#8221; Botto said. In recent years, the government in Uruguay has promoted&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/decoding-the-language-of-bats-key-for-their-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/decoding-the-language-of-bats-key-for-their-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-210942</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Species recognition shifts into auto with neural networks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/species-recognition-shifts-into-auto-with-neural-networks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/species-recognition-shifts-into-auto-with-neural-networks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jun 2018 10:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/06/14142241/impala-kissing-key-feature-of-camera-traps_snapshot-serengeti-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=207436</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, cameras, Cryptic Species, data, Monitoring, Open-source, Research, Sensors, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[People love camera traps. Placed in the middle of a forest or savanna, their motion sensors trigger a photo when an animal or person passes by. They allow us to verify the presence of cool, cryptic animals at a given place and time, and grids of camera traps help us better understand site-level distributions and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[People love camera traps. Placed in the middle of a forest or savanna, their motion sensors trigger a photo when an animal or person passes by. They allow us to verify the presence of cool, cryptic animals at a given place and time, and grids of camera traps help us better understand site-level distributions and potential interactions among species. As image datasets grow to include millions of photos, project teams spend increasingly greater amounts of time manually extracting the desired information — such as the presence and number of poachers or of rare and nocturnal wildlife — from the images. In a study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a multinational team of scientists assessed the capacity of an advanced type of machine learning, called deep neural networks, to automatically recognize the number, species, and behavior of animals in the savanna ecosystem of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. The study&#8217;s artificial intelligence system says that in this camera trap photo there is a “zebra, moving.” He is really moving! Image by Snapshot Serengeti project/Norouzzadeh et al. 2018. PNAS . From image collection to analysis Analysis, rather than collection, of camera trap data has become a bottleneck to obtaining the desired wildlife information. Manually obtaining information from hundreds of thousands of camera trap photos has become an expensive, time-consuming process. Moving vegetation can trigger a motion-sensor camera to take a photo, resulting in many camera trap images with no animals. When animals that are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/species-recognition-shifts-into-auto-with-neural-networks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/species-recognition-shifts-into-auto-with-neural-networks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-207436</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vibrations from elephant calls and movements reflect distinct behaviors, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/vibrations-from-elephant-calls-and-movements-reflect-distinct-behaviors-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/vibrations-from-elephant-calls-and-movements-reflect-distinct-behaviors-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2018 16:58:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/05/11161416/Botswana-Okavango-ellies-walking-fast_small-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=206666</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Elephants, Open-source, Research, Sensors, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The well-known trumpeting call of an elephant indicates anger or alarm. The more common but less familiar rumbles are a range of low-frequency sounds that elephants use to communicate different types of messages to one another. Scientists have found that rumbles travel through both the air and the ground. These low-frequency calls create seismic waves—vibrations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The well-known trumpeting call of an elephant indicates anger or alarm. The more common but less familiar rumbles are a range of low-frequency sounds that elephants use to communicate different types of messages to one another. Scientists have found that rumbles travel through both the air and the ground. These low-frequency calls create seismic waves—vibrations occurring underground and along the earth’s surface—which, depending on the soil type, can travel farther than the counterpart waves we hear moving through the air. Elephant rumbles are low-frequency vocalizations that can travel up to several kilometers and could enable large dispersed herds like this one in Kenya to stay in touch. Photo credit: Sue Palminteri A new study has found different elephant behaviors created distinct seismic signals and that both the local geological structure and low-frequency human-generated noise may affect transmission of these signals. Ground versus airborne sound waves When an elephant, rabbit, or person walks, we create seismic waves, the heavier and faster the walk, the greater the strength of the wave. Seismic wave transmission is also affected by physical factors, such as the underlying soil type and other noises in the same frequency range. In areas with minimal human seismic noise, the frequencies around and below 20 Hz characteristic of elephant vocalizations are relatively noise-free.  Noises at this frequency, also known as infrasound, are generally too low for us to hear. Research by Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell of Stanford University has shown that elephants in Namibia can both detect seismic signals and distinguish alarm&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/vibrations-from-elephant-calls-and-movements-reflect-distinct-behaviors-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-206666</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>One-stop shop for digital global maps launched</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/one-stop-shop-for-digital-global-maps-launched/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/one-stop-shop-for-digital-global-maps-launched/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2018 19:15:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/04/30185229/Indian-villagers-carrying-dried-grass-fr-fields_web-banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=206303</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Communication, data, Mapping, Monitoring, Oceans, Open-source, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Software, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How does a country’s per capita Gross Domestic Product relate to its forest or biodiversity intactness? Where do areas of deposits of minerals or fossil fuels coincide with the singular habitats of highly endemic species? Which areas of key cereal crops are likely to experience water stress or erosion  in the near future? A new [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How does a country’s per capita Gross Domestic Product relate to its forest or biodiversity intactness? Where do areas of deposits of minerals or fossil fuels coincide with the singular habitats of highly endemic species? Which areas of key cereal crops are likely to experience water stress or erosion  in the near future? A new online data platform may help us answer these and similar environmental questions. Does higher per capita GDP correspond to greater loss of natural vegetation? Or higher levels of conservation? Photo credit: Sue Palminteri Environmental information about our planet, such as land use changes at individual sites or across broad regions, is becoming increasingly available, thanks to aerial and ground data collection technologies. Similarly, improved access and communications have enabled researchers to compile global-scale socioeconomic data sets. A team of institutions, led by World Resources Institute (WRI), launched an open-source data platform, called Resource Watch, earlier this month. The new platform pulls together and organizes over 200 spatially referenced data sets relevant to economic development and natural resource management. It allows the user to freely download or view these data on maps or, in some cases, as graphs or charts. The site also offers analyses of specific data sets curated by WRI research staff. The aim for the new platform is to allow anyone with internet access to better understand the interconnectedness of human and natural activities by making it easy for you to spatially overlay any of a variety of global and regional-scale environmental and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/one-stop-shop-for-digital-global-maps-launched/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/one-stop-shop-for-digital-global-maps-launched/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-206303</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tech and collaboration are putting indigenous land rights on the map</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/tech-and-collaboration-are-putting-indigenous-land-rights-on-the-map/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/tech-and-collaboration-are-putting-indigenous-land-rights-on-the-map/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2018 10:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lalini Pedris]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/03/25151311/DSC03063_reviewing-maps-at-workshop_feature-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=205142</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Paraguay]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[data, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mapping, Open-source, Remote Sensing, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dwarfed both in size and fame by the Amazon rainforest, the Gran Chaco, South America’s second largest vegetation complex, is a diverse  mix of thorny dry forest and palm savannahs stretching across the far reaches of Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. It is home to over 150 mammalian species, including the giant armadillo and giant [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dwarfed both in size and fame by the Amazon rainforest, the Gran Chaco, South America’s second largest vegetation complex, is a diverse  mix of thorny dry forest and palm savannahs stretching across the far reaches of Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. It is home to over 150 mammalian species, including the giant armadillo and giant anteater (both currently listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species). The giant anteater, native to South America, is one of numerous mammalian species residing in the Gran Chaco ecoregion. Photo credit: Sémhur, License art libre The Gran Chaco is also home to roughly 250,000 indigenous people, stemming from around twenty different ethnic groups, who are embroiled in a bitter battle to lay claim to their ancestral forested lands – before they disappear. Mapping deforestation and the Gran Chaco Americano The forests and savannahs of the geographically diverse Gran Chaco Americano have been suffering a largely silent extinction – until recently. Expansive clearings for cattle grazing in the Pargauayan Gran Chaco are visible from above. Photo credit: Peer V CC 3.0 Advanced mapping technology is bringing the Chaco into the spotlight. Indigenous groups are digitally mapping their territories in an effort to protect their forests from the encroachment of cattle ranching and soy farming, which threaten both wildlife and indigenous livelihoods. In Paraguay, a game-changer for indigenous communities has been Tierras Indígenas (TI), an interactive map and online platform launched by Paraguay’s Federación por la Autodeterminación de los Pueblos Indígenas/Federation for the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/tech-and-collaboration-are-putting-indigenous-land-rights-on-the-map/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-205142</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Suite of free, open-source tools to help even non-experts monitor large-scale land use change</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/suite-of-free-open-source-tools-aims-to-enable-even-non-experts-to-monitor-land-use-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/suite-of-free-open-source-tools-aims-to-enable-even-non-experts-to-monitor-land-use-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2017 23:28:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/10/20212503/CE_04_analysis-windows_small-2-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=200313</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[data, Dry Forests, Forests, Land Use Change, Open-source, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent study mapped the world’s dry forests using a relatively new tool that combines creative satellite image analysis with local- and national-scale knowledge. Natural resource agencies worldwide inventory their country’s vegetation cover, land uses, and forest carbon stocks in order to quantify the extent and impacts of land use change as well as their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent study mapped the world’s dry forests using a relatively new tool that combines creative satellite image analysis with local- and national-scale knowledge. Natural resource agencies worldwide inventory their country’s vegetation cover, land uses, and forest carbon stocks in order to quantify the extent and impacts of land use change as well as their progress toward commitments to international treaties. However, they often lack the tools to compile and analyze the necessary data on land use change. New online platforms now enable viewing and analysis of global-scale imagery but cannot suggest the drivers of land cover change. Commercially available high-resolution remote sensing data are expensive, inconsistent in availability, and hard to access for non-experts. Dry forest canopy in the Ankarana region of Madagascar. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler Image data collection for non-experts The drylands researchers, led by Jean-François Bastin of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), used Collect Earth, a free, open-source platform that facilitates access to multiple freely available archives of satellite imagery. It is a plug-in for Google Earth that enables visual photo interpretation of very high spatial and temporal resolution satellite imagery, made available through three repositories: Google Earth, Google Earth Engine, and Bing Maps. This effort also partners with NASA, USGS, USFS, WRI. Google Earth Engine (GEE) allows users to analyze satellite imagery in the cloud. Collect Earth offers users free access to both the high-resolution GEE images, as well as the very high-resolution (VHR, less than 1 m resolution) images of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/suite-of-free-open-source-tools-aims-to-enable-even-non-experts-to-monitor-land-use-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-200313</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rethinking camera traps for the small, fast, and elusive</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/rethinking-camera-traps-for-small-fast-elusive/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/rethinking-camera-traps-for-small-fast-elusive/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2017 15:20:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/09/11113124/Ensifera-ensifera-female_featured1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=198946</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Camera Trapping, cameras, Open-source, Research, Sensors, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When you picture (ahem) a photo taken by a camera trap—a remote camera triggered by movement—you might think first of a tiger or some other stealthy forest cat. Recent Wildtech readers might think of primates or other arboreal mammals. You probably don’t think of hummingbirds. Camera traps typically take a photo when a warm-bodied animal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When you picture (ahem) a photo taken by a camera trap—a remote camera triggered by movement—you might think first of a tiger or some other stealthy forest cat. Recent Wildtech readers might think of primates or other arboreal mammals. You probably don’t think of hummingbirds. A male green-tailed trainbearer shows his stuff during tests of the new trigger system near Bogotá, Colombia. Other hummingbird photos in this post were taken using the trigger system in Colombia. Photo credit: Alejandro Rico-Guevara Camera traps typically take a photo when a warm-bodied animal walks in front of cooler vegetation and triggers the system’s passive infrared (PIR) sensor. The sensor detects a change in surface temperature from the surroundings and triggers the device to take a photo or video automatically, with no human interference. Field biologists have thus used camera traps to record the presence and behavior of animals in a variety of situations. Camera traps have limitations, however, for particular species and behaviors. They do not yet support high-speed video recording. And the time lapse between detection by the sensor and release of the camera’s shutter button is often too long to capture the whole body of a small, fast-moving animal in the photo. Hummingbirds are the epitome of small, fast-moving animals, flapping their wings roughly 50 times per second, faster than the human eye can see, and moving at 15 meters each second (54 km/h; 34 mph). Measuring 5-22 cm (2-9 in), hummingbirds are often too small and fast to be captured&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/rethinking-camera-traps-for-small-fast-elusive/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-198946</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Open-source species location data supports global biodiversity analyses</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/gbif-open-source-species-location-data-supports-global-biodiversity-analyses/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/gbif-open-source-species-location-data-supports-global-biodiversity-analyses/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2017 07:15:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Colleen O'Brien]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/07/26231549/Uganda-hawkmoth_flip_GP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=197654</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Citizen Science, data, Environment, GPS, Mapping, Open-source, Research, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How many species are living on Earth at this moment in time? Ask a few different scientists and you may get drastically different answers.  Most estimates range from 3-10 million distinct species of multicellular organisms; however, when microbial diversity is factored in, the upper bound jumps to nearly a trillion. Having a clear understanding of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How many species are living on Earth at this moment in time? Ask a few different scientists and you may get drastically different answers.  Most estimates range from 3-10 million distinct species of multicellular organisms; however, when microbial diversity is factored in, the upper bound jumps to nearly a trillion. Having a clear understanding of what species are present on Earth, where they are, and to what extent they are threatened is essential to making informed conservation decisions at both a local and global scale. A hawk moth in Uganda, one of more than 1,400 hawk moth species. Photo credit: George Powell In 2001, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) was established through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by participating countries with the goal of providing the infrastructure to store biodiversity datasets in a standardized format that is accessible to everyone.  The overall vision of GBIF is to have “A world in which biodiversity information is freely and universally available for science, society and a sustainable future”. GBIF has now grown into the largest biodiversity database in the world with records of hundreds of millions of occurrences of over 1.7 million species, ranging from bacteria to blue whales.  It contains data collected over the past three centuries from biological surveys as well as digitized records  of museum and herbarium collections. Institutions from over 50 countries have contributed datasets to GBIF. Distribution of the GBIF&#8217;s 710 million geo-referenced species occurrence locations. Image credit: GBIF How it works Participating countries&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/gbif-open-source-species-location-data-supports-global-biodiversity-analyses/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-197654</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Building environmental community and transparency through maps</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/building-environmental-community-and-transparency-through-maps/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/building-environmental-community-and-transparency-through-maps/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Mar 2017 15:18:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/03/30124329/Hydropower-in-Asia-768x390.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=193742</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Congo Basin and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[data, Logging, Mapping, Open-source, Plantations, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Technology, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[GLO-4060 QZA-16/0047.3]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Map for Environment is a free online open-source mapping platform that offers spatial data, tools, and hosting to encourage a wider environmental community to produce maps and increase transparency in decision-making.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the (English) saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Maps, too, convey a wealth of information in a small space and are doing so more accurately and with more customized information, than ever before. Remote sensing now lets us monitor forest cover, over time, at global and local scales, while GPS units allow explorers and scientists on foot to add data to a specific point on the Earth. However, accessing, combining, and interpreting those data are still challenging.  Environmental, demographic, land use, and infrastructure data are frequently stored privately or in government agencies, making them difficult to access at the scale and resolution needed for monitoring. Powerful mapping platforms tend to be very expensive, though some academic and non-profit institutions have lower-cost licenses to ArcGIS, the most common GIS platform, which also offers a free, limited-use, online version. Most free GIS software, such as QGIS, requires users to have some training and data access. Hiker with GPS on a mobile phone tracing data into OpenStreetMap. Photo credit: Harry Wood via Creative Commons A new online mapping platform called Map for Environment offers spatial data, basic mapping tools, hosting space, and advice/consulting services for people who want to make maps but don’t need to conduct extensive analyses. These allow the user to: Use one or more of the platform’s pre-made maps or data layers Upload data (e.g., shapefiles, geojson, kml, csv) or link data from another service (e.g., ArcGIS online, raster hosting service such as Amazon Web Services)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/building-environmental-community-and-transparency-through-maps/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-193742</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Whistleblowing for wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/whistleblowing-for-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/whistleblowing-for-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Dec 2016 21:54:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Julia John]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/12/27184006/USFWS_is_sending_a_clear_message_that_the_nation_will_not_tolerate_wildlife_crime_that_threatens_to_wipe_out_the_African_elephant._10855990065-768x432.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=191933</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Global, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Communication, Conservation, Crime, Forests, Interviews, Law Enforcement, Mobile, Open-source, Poaching, Portable, Software, Technology, Trade, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From the Lacey Act to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), many laws aim to protect wildlife, but the clandestine nature of wildlife crime makes it hard to identify violations. Wildlife crime often sidesteps official surveillance, but those involved in the illegal activity and independent citizens can bear witness to such lawbreaking. As Stephen Kohn, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From the Lacey Act to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), many laws aim to protect wildlife, but the clandestine nature of wildlife crime makes it hard to identify violations. Wildlife crime often sidesteps official surveillance, but those involved in the illegal activity and independent citizens can bear witness to such lawbreaking. As Stephen Kohn, a founder and Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center (NWC), points out in the Environmental Law Reporter, both of those laws—in addition to several others pertaining to wildlife—“include language providing monetary incentives to persons who disclose information about wildlife crimes, but these provisions have not been effectively implemented.” Wildtech spoke with NWC’s Chief Operating Officer Ashley Binetti earlier this month to learn how the organization’s emerging Global Wildlife Whistleblower Program works to counter wildlife crime and promote conservation by harnessing such whistleblower reward laws. The innovation consists of a secure website where potential whistleblowers can confidentially and anonymously submit intelligence on wildlife crime, as well as an attorney referral service that assists them in delivering their tips to appropriate law enforcement agencies and accessing monetary rewards for their contributions under applicable U.S. laws. The NWC&#8217;s Global Wildlife Whistleblower Program helps whistleblowers securely provide tips on wildlife crime online and receive monetary compensation through legal reward provisions. Photo credit: NWC. Wildtech: Can you describe the NWC whistleblower platform and its significance for conservation? Binetti: The NWC has been doing whistleblower advocacy for 30 years. Not too long ago, Stephen Kohn found that important wildlife laws like&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/whistleblowing-for-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-191933</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>KEDR: Watching over the cedar forests of the Russian Far East</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/kedr-watching-over-the-cedar-forests-of-the-russian-far-east/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/kedr-watching-over-the-cedar-forests-of-the-russian-far-east/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Nov 2016 06:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Julia John]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/11/18212404/photolenta_big_photo-26-768x510.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=191057</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Citizen Science, Conservation, Crime, data, Forests, Law Enforcement, Monitoring, Open-source, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Sensors, Software, Surveillance, Technology, Trade, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An innovative monitoring system analyzes satellite imagery to pinpoint illegal logging in the habitat of the Amur tiger and leopard.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The destruction of temperate forests in the Russian Far East is a major threat to the iconic yet critically endangered Amur tigers and leopards; their fate depends on the curbing of illegal logging, which drives deforestation in this region. A pioneering forest monitoring system called KEDR is now harnessing remote sensing to aid this conservation effort. KEDR is named after the most biodiverse Russian forest, the cedar-broadleaf forest conservationists seek to protect from the illegal logging that threatens its plant and endemic animal species. Photo credit: WWF Russia. Developed by a group of organizations led by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-Russia’s Amur Branch, KEDR uses an algorithm to automatically analyze medium-resolution satellite images relayed to the control station in real-time. It detects various changes in forest canopy and compares them to the boundaries of authorized harvesting areas to identify violations. In this way, forest managers in the KEDR monitoring dispatching center get up-to-date information intelligence about logging activity and can swiftly identify and counteract violations. “KEDR opens up opportunities for successful implementation of information technologies in forest management and for general improvement of the industry,” said WWF Russia. The conservationists named the remote monitoring system after the most biodiverse Russian forest, the cedar-broadleaf forest they seek to protect from the illegal logging that threatens its plant and endemic animal species. “KEDR [is] CEDAR in Russian, a commonly used name for Korean pine,” said Andrey Purekhovsky, Dmitriy Sychikov and Nikolay Shmatkov of WWF Russia’s Amur division. “[It] is a source of pine-nuts&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/kedr-watching-over-the-cedar-forests-of-the-russian-far-east/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-191057</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Computing cost-effective wildlife corridors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/computing-cost-effective-wildlife-corridors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/computing-cost-effective-wildlife-corridors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2016 22:19:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Julia John]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/11/11213329/Jean-Gagnon-768x509.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=190859</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Montana, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Interviews, Open-source, Research, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Not many people do what Dr. Bistra Dilkina does for a living. She’s one of many computer scientists at Georgia Tech, but she’s no ordinary tech whiz. For the past four years, Dilkina has been pushing boundaries in the pioneering field of computational sustainability, using her technical skills to optimize biodiversity corridor planning for multiple [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Not many people do what Dr. Bistra Dilkina does for a living. She’s one of many computer scientists at Georgia Tech, but she’s no ordinary tech whiz. For the past four years, Dilkina has been pushing boundaries in the pioneering field of computational sustainability, using her technical skills to optimize biodiversity corridor planning for multiple species and budgets. Wildtech recently spoke with Dilkina about this unique intersection of technology and conservation. We discussed her latest study, published in Conservation Biology this fall, which applies an open-source tool for mathematical modeling and solver software to optimize movement corridors for grizzly bears and wolverines in Montana, as well as her similar research with other wildlife elsewhere. Bistra Dilkina, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech&#8217;s School of Computational Science and Engineering, works in the emerging field of computational sustainability. She brings her technical acumen to bear on her interest in biodiversity conservation by developing a tool to optimize joint-species wildlife corridors under different budgets. Photo credit: Georgie Tech College of Computing. Wildtech:  Can you please tell us more about how the optimization program used in your study works? Dilkina:  The optimization problem we were trying to solve [was] how to find the best set of land parcels to buy such that they form a connected path between pairs of core habitat areas. We are trying to create plans for preserving wildlife corridors. Optimization is to find which corridors to buy such that they provide the best connectivity, meaning the lowest resistance to movement for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/computing-cost-effective-wildlife-corridors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-190859</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Experts hack away at portable DNA barcode scanner to fight timber and wildlife trafficking</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/09/experts-hack-away-at-portable-dna-barcode-scanner-to-fight-timber-and-wildlife-trafficking/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/09/experts-hack-away-at-portable-dna-barcode-scanner-to-fight-timber-and-wildlife-trafficking/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2016 10:37:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Julia John]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/09/01185942/cx_5-768x414.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=189743</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, Global, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, DNA, Forests, Law Enforcement, Open-source, Portable, Research, Technology, Trade, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How could we harness DNA barcode technology in a handheld device that frontline officials could use to combat timber and wildlife trafficking?]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Survey responses to the Wildtech needs assessment—especially from field researchers—put portable DNA analysis near the top of the research and conservation technology wish-list. How could we harness DNA barcode technology in an adaptable, handheld device that frontline officials in developing countries could use to combat timber and wildlife trafficking? The DNA Barcode Scanner Hack that took place in Washington, DC on Friday, August 29, dug into this question. The meeting brought together over 40 experts in evolution and molecular biology, conservation, design, engineering and enforcement to brainstorm an open-source technology that could identify timber samples in the field, help flag wildlife trafficking, detect novel pathogens and enhance fisheries traceability, bypassing the need for an expensive, distant laboratory. Conservation X Labs, Smithsonian Institution and the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) hosted the event at the National Museum of American History. Paul Bunje facilitates his group&#8217;s thought process exercises for developing blue-sky breakthroughs for challenges associated with choosing and integrating DNA analysis technologies. Photo credit: Sarah Snyder. “The event was extraordinary,” said David Baisch, Molecular Innovations Fellow at Conservation X Labs. “We hoped that this event would identify clear development pathways for approaching a prototype which combined synergistic DNA isolation and analysis methods for timber, while keeping our design criteria of being cheap (a device cost of less than $1000, which could analyze a sample for $5 or less), portable, manufacturable, scalable, usable by an individual with no scientific training, in conditions without regular access to power, challenging environmental conditions,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/09/experts-hack-away-at-portable-dna-barcode-scanner-to-fight-timber-and-wildlife-trafficking/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-189743</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Piloting PALM Risk to detect palm oil-driven deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/piloting-palm-risk-detect-palm-oil-driven-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/piloting-palm-risk-detect-palm-oil-driven-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jul 2016 17:16:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Julia John]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/07/01193258/7197044324_f53eca0136_b-wp-495x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://wildtech-mongabay-com.mongabay.com/?p=185425</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Indonesia, and Malaysia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, early warning, Forests, Mapping, Monitoring, Open-source, Palm Oil, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[What do lipstick, detergent and instant noodles have in common? They all contain palm oil. Half of every packaged product stocking supermarket shelves can be traced back to a ruthless army of oil palm trees rapidly occupying land that naturally supported rich tropical forests. Palm oil production razes and replaces biologically diverse ecosystems with monospecific [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[What do lipstick, detergent and instant noodles have in common? They all contain palm oil. Half of every packaged product stocking supermarket shelves can be traced back to a ruthless army of oil palm trees rapidly occupying land that naturally supported rich tropical forests. Palm oil production razes and replaces biologically diverse ecosystems with monospecific palm “deserts,” endangering wildlife originally inhabiting these areas – including orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos. In Indonesia and Malaysia, which generate over four-fifths of the world’s palm oil, oil palms uniformly dot many vast formerly forested regions. Mature palm oil plantation at Cargill&#8217;s PT Harapan Sawit Lestari, Borneo, Indonesia. Photo credit: David Gilbert/RAN. To help identify and mitigate the deforestation risks of specific palm oil mills, consumer goods giant Unilever recently piloted the World Resources Institute (WRI)’s new Prioritizing Areas, Landscapes and Mills (PALM) Risk Tool. “The PALM Risk Tool will facilitate increased transparency, help us identify high risk mills and support us as we work to drive the transformational change needed in the palm oil industry,” said Unilever’s Chief Procurement Officer Dhaval Buch. Testing it, Unilever found that 29 of the mills it sources from, although comprising a fraction of its supply chain, pose high deforestation risk. For instance, take the Intan Sejati Andalan mill in Riau, Indonesia, where 200,000 hectares of surrounding primary forest has disappeared since 2009; analysts predict the remaining 300,000 are likely to be cleared too. Deforestation for palm oil in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo credit: Hayden. A Tool for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/piloting-palm-risk-detect-palm-oil-driven-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-188455</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Participatory Mapping in the Mobile Age</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/participatory-mapping-in-the-mobile-age/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/participatory-mapping-in-the-mobile-age/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2016 15:13:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nathan Hahn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/04/01193338/Kogi-ODK-2-850x310-1-wp-520x190.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://wildtech-mongabay-com.mongabay.com/?p=185159</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, data, Deforestation, low-tech, Mapping, Mobile, Monitoring, Open-source, Software, Technology, Tracking, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, with peaks that soar over 18,000 feet over the Colombian coast, the Kogi people live on roughly six million isolated from the rest of the world by cocaine traffickers, tomb raiders, and militias that rove the rainforest. The Kogi and associated tribes are one of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, with peaks that soar over 18,000 feet over the Colombian coast, the Kogi people live on roughly six million isolated from the rest of the world by cocaine traffickers, tomb raiders, and militias that rove the rainforest. The Kogi and associated tribes are one of the last surviving civilizations from the pre-Colombian period, having fled the Spanish conquest five centuries ago. The Kogi, Arhuaco, and Wiwa remain true to their ancient laws—moral, ecological, and spiritual—and are still led and inspired by priests, or mamas, who have an exceptional spiritual connection with the ecosystems in which they live. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains in Colombia. Image courtesy of Congreso Alfepsi. Around the margins of the Sierra Nevada is the Línea Negra – the “Black Line” – a chain of 54 pilgrimage sites sacred to the Kogi and once part of their ancestral territories. Most of the sites are no longer under Kogi ownership or control and have come under threat by poorly-planned development schemes and illicit crop cultivation. Many of these sites are vital water sources and encompass lagoons, springs, and wetlands. Other sacred sites include ancient paths, terraces, and cities from the Tayrona culture, the ancestors of the indigenous peoples of the Sierra. With these sites under threat, the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) has announced a new pilot to help the Kogi map their lands using an open-source mobile software called Open Data Kit. In an email interview with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/participatory-mapping-in-the-mobile-age/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-188189</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Applying open-source tracking technology to hunting research in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/12/applying-open-source-tracking-technology-to-hunting-research-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/12/applying-open-source-tracking-technology-to-hunting-research-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2015 13:24:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/12/02225641/Mataki-on-dogs_MarkAbrahams_feature-435x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Hunting, Interviews, Monitoring, Open-source, Technology, Tracking, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An innovative use of an open-source animal monitoring platform to examine impacts of hunting dogs on wildlife]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How do subsistence hunters use space and affect wild animal populations?  Mark Abrahams, a doctoral researcher at the University of East Anglia in the UK, studies their impacts in the Brazilian Amazon. His dissertation focuses on how proximity to human subsistence hunting communities affects the population abundances of certain terrestrial game animals. A Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctata), a staple food item in Amazon villages. Photo credit: Geoff Gallice-Flickr, CreativeCommons Part of Abrahams’ research focuses on the effects that the use of hunting dogs has on wildlife populations surrounding human communities. Hunters there track and trap wild game using packs of dogs that are trained and sent out to detect and follow specific animal species, and Mark wanted to determine the routes, speed, and spatial pattern of these dogs (and their owners) during their hunts to estimate the disturbance they cause to wildlife. As part of an ongoing series looking at open-source technologies, including RFID tags and unmanned aerial vehicles, we asked Mark about his resourceful use of the Mataki animal movement tracker on several of these hunting dogs. Hunting dogs wearing open-source Mataki tracking tags attached to their collars. Photo credit: Mark Abrahams Designed by Dr. Robin Freeman as part of the Technology for Nature (TfN) initiative, Mataki is a lightweight, open-source tracking platform to monitor movements of wild animals via GPS. TfN’s idea was to create a programmable, flexible, tracking device with a wireless data download that was also low-cost and open-source. Mataki includes a set of software tools&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/12/applying-open-source-tracking-technology-to-hunting-research-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-171807</doi>				</item>
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