On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we take a look at the role technology is playing — and might play in the future — in conservation efforts.

Our first guest is Topher White, the founder of Rainforest Connection, a nonprofit based in San Francisco that has deployed upcycled cell phones in tropical forests around the world to provide real-time monitoring of forests and wildlife.

Not only can Rainforest Connection’s network alert local communities when illegal logging activities might be taking place, but you can go sign up right now to get an alert whenever your favorite monkey or bird is heard vocalizing in the rainforest. This is a great example of how a common technology that most of us probably carry around in our pocket all day is being used right now to aid in conservation efforts — and White sees even more applications for the technology in the future.

Our second guest is Matthew Putman, an applied physicist with a keen interest in conservation. Putman is CEO of Nanotronics, a company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY that makes automated industrial microscopes used by manufacturers of advanced technologies like semiconductors, microchips, hard drives, LEDs, and aerospace hardware.

Putman discusses some of the technologies that he sees making the biggest contributions to the way we approach conservation and why he believes these technological advances really can help turn the tide against environmental degradation.

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• Brazil rejects oil company’s ‘Amazon Reef’ drilling bid
• Temer’s Amazon mining decrees derided by protestors, annulled by judge
• Extensive illegal cattle ranching destroys core area of Nicaragua’s Indio Maíz Biological Reserve
• Rhino horn confiscated, three alleged traffickers arrested in Sumatra
• ‘Ecological disaster’: controversial bridge puts East Kalimantan’s green commitment to the test
• Renewable energy to power 139 countries? Scientists say it’s possible

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If you want to read more specifically about conservation technology, you can go to wildtech-mongabay-com.mongabay.com and read all of our coverage of technologies reshaping conservation initiatives today.

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Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001