On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with Shah Selbe, an engineer and technologist who founded Conservify, a conservation tech lab that uses open-source technologies to empower local communities and solve some of the most pressing conservation challenges of our time.

Selbe is literally a rocket scientist who spent a decade building and launching satellites with Boeing before getting into conservation tech. These days he’s helping deploy technologies like drones, sensor networks, smartphone apps, and acoustic monitoring buoys to stop illegal poaching, monitor protected areas, and protect biodiversity.

Selbe joins us today to talk about his journey from rocket science to conservation science, the open-source hardware and online platform Conservify is developing called FieldKit, and the conservation tech he’s most excited about.

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• China beefs up wildlife trade ban as COVID-19 outbreak intensifies
• ‘Out of control’: Unprecedented fires ravage Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands
• Camera traps confirm presence of lowland gorillas in central mainland Equatorial Guinea for first time in over a decade

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Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001

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