In Rwanda, Learning Whether a ‘Smart Park' Can Help Both Wildlife and Tourism

The Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique has repopulated its large mammals by over 700 percent through collaborations between wildlife authorities and nonprofits. With millions of dollars in philanthropic assistance, the park’s revival is made possible by supporting and using local and indigenous knowledge, as well as taking a whole-community approach that provides services for those towns around African national parks. Such philanthropic approaches to conservation are part of a larger, global trend taking place in countries around the world.

Africa's wildlife have made headlines time and time again, as species find their way closer to extinction. There are some pockets of the continent, however that have provide refuge for species and allowed them to not just populate, but thrive. Recognizing this, a group known as African Parks found a way to use these growing populations to repopulate other areas of the continent by transporting animals to newly protected areas.

Bucking the worldwide trend, Nepal continues its successful fight against poaching, thanks to a multilayered system of information gathering, enforcement, and swift justice.

A space-based initiative called Global Fishing Watch is using satellite imagery and data to hold companies accountable to their promise of providing sustainable sourced seafood. While the volume of data and cost of obtaining it can be a challenge, the organization has partnered with key collaborators to help with the effort. Countries like Indonesia and Panama are working with them to stop illegal fishing.

As the monarch butterfly nears endangerment, cities across the US are integrating butterfly-friendly spaces into their urban environments. Such spaces reside in schools, firehouses, parks, and more, and they enable the butterfly to rest, feed, pollinate, and procreate at any stage in their lifecycle. St. Louis in particular already has over 400 monarch gardens and have ample evidence of public support for the projects.

Scientists, volunteers, and rangers are working around the clock to save the endangered kakapo, a native New Zealand bird. With only 147 of these charismatic birds left in the world, they’re taking a multi-pronged, highly technological approach. Efforts include smart transmitters that track every bird and when they’re mating, artificial inseminations, and hatching fertile eggs in captivity while mothers sit on 3D-printed smart eggs.

Aided by advanced GPS collar technology, scientists in Wyoming are mapping herd animal movement as they migrate across the state. Such efforts have helped planners and conservationists remove barriers and weigh development projects in accordance with the data, and such efforts are spreading to other areas in the Western United States.

The advancement of technology has created the capability to consider solutions never before possible. Conservation X Labs, a startup based in Washington, D.C., has committed their focused on marrying the worlds of conservation and technology, to combat mounting concerns of international poaching and deforestation. While the scaling of the technology is stagnated largely due to the expense of technology, progress has been made and devices are actively being piloted.

Whenever there’s a natural catastrophe, a team of “crisis mappers” activate around the world. These volunteers use crowdsourcing tools to turn satellite data into digital maps, which are then used to make decisions on the ground, enabling rescuers to deliver food, shelter, and supplies to areas that need them most.

The New Zealand’s Department of Conservation and the Ngāi Tahu, the Māori tribe whose people are the traditional guardians of the critically endangered kākāpō bird, are slowly relocating the birds to predator-free sanctuary to give them a chance to thrive.