Technology has been used in conservation for a long time, from microphones able to pick up echolocation calls from bats to camera traps which can be triggered to capture a photo of an animal whilst the researcher is tucked up in bed.
But whilst the price and accessibility of technology has plummeted in many areas, many conservation technologies have not come down in price in the same way. This is for a number of reasons, for a start, the demand for a bat detector isn’t quite that of a mobile phone. This means that you don’t get the benefits of the economies of scale and the drive to advance the tech isn’t as high as you don’t have as many companies competing.
The other issue, which we have covered before on the podcast is that the people and institutions that have the privilege of access to this equipment often don’t freely share the data, meaning those people carrying out conservation on the ground, the local communities, might not be able to utilise it.
Today’s guest is trying to change both of these things.
Shah Selbe is a spacecraft engineer turned conservation technologist and founder of non-profit Conservify whose mission it is to lower barriers to entry for effective conservation by providing anything from equipment to apps and all with a big push towards open-data.
For more info on Conservify head to www.conservify.org
You can find Shah on Twitter @shahselbe
Conservify @conservify on both Twitter and Instagram
Field kit @fieldkitorg also both on Twitter and Instagram
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