News & Press
UPDATES AND MEDIA FROM CONSERVATION X LABS
Today, Conservation X Labs (CXL), in collaboration with the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, Esri, Planet, and USAID, proudly launched the Western North America edition of the Fire Grand Challenge. This groundbreaking initiative seeks to harness human ingenuity to transform how we manage and live with fire, ultimately restoring it to its natural role within ecosystems.
Conservation X Labs ("CXL") has released a pivotal perspective in the British Ecological Society titled "The Extinction Solutions Index (ESI): A framework to measure solution efficiency to address biodiversity loss." The perspective outlines CXL's innovative approach to combating global biodiversity loss.
Washington, D.C. — Conservation X Labs (CXL), with support from Schmidt Futures and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, has launched the Con X Tech Prize: The Amazon (CXTP) – a global competition that seeks cutting-edge science and tech innovations to transform the Amazon's destructive, extractive economies into modern, regenerative ones.
The Amazon's current economic model relies on outdated practices, leading to unsustainable resource extraction and degradation of its ecological and cultural richness. The CXTP seeks to shift this paradigm by replacing destructive value chains with sustainable alternatives for food, feed, fiber, and materials.
“In our mission to prevent the sixth mass extinction, the Amazon emerges as a critical region of focus, through the Con X Tech Prize, we’re empowering innovators to pioneer solutions that not only preserve the Amazon’s biodiversity but also foster regenerative economies for the benefit of the local communities and the planet.”
Individuals and teams worldwide are encouraged to submit their pioneering ideas aligned with this vision of modern, regenerative Amazonian economies. To build collaborations, individuals can also apply to lend their skills and be added to an existing team through a unique match-making process. Proposals from Brazil, Colombia, and Peru are especially welcomed. Selected teams will receive one of twenty (20) seed grants totaling USD 3,500 each to develop their prototypes. These prototypes will then compete for a grand prize of USD 20,000, along with two (2) runner-up prizes of USD 5,000 each.
The Con X Tech Prize is seeking novel solutions in two key areas:
Replacements: Innovations for sustainable alternatives in food, feed, fiber, and materials that leverage Amazonian resources.
Practices to Support Production, Manufacture, and Scale: Methods to support the sustainable production of replacement products in the Amazon.
Proposals are open for submission until April 26, 2024, at 11:59 PM EDT.
For more information and to submit a proposal, visit www.conservationxlabs.com/cxtp-amazon or contact amazon@conservationxlabs.org
About Conservation X Labs (CXL)
Conservation X Labs creates solutions to prevent the sixth mass extinction by developing transformative technologies, harnessing innovation through competitions, and building a community of innovators across disciplines. With the belief that humans have the power to solve the problems they've created, CXL stands at the forefront of conservation technology. Learn more at www.conservationxlabs.com
Media Contact
Lindsey Garrison, Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing
Conservation X Labs
press@conservationxlabs.org
Combining forces will increase AI’s impact on planetary health and ending extinction
WASHINGTON, DC — January 9, 2024 — Conservation X Labs (“CXL”) and Wild Me announced today that they are merging to combine their strengths in AI towards a shared vision of preventing the sixth mass extinction. Wild Me, a nonprofit that develops AI tools for collaborative, international wildlife conservation, has become part of Conservation X Labs, a technology and innovation organization dedicated to creatively disrupting the field of conservation.
“In this pivotal moment for our planet, we are thrilled to welcome the Wild Me team and community to Conservation X Labs. Wild Me and CXL share a passion for utilizing cutting-edge data and technology to deliver the greatest impact. We believe in the enormous potential of AI for conservation, and look forward to combining forces to empower conservationists worldwide. ”
Wild Me was founded by Jason Holmberg, Dr. Zavan Arzoumanian, and Dr. Tanya Berger-Wolf. It is responsible for the creation of Codex, Wildbook, and Scout, open source software platforms that blend structured wildlife research with artificial intelligence, citizen science, and computer vision to speed population analysis, individual reidentification, and develop new insights to help fight extinction. These platforms leverage computer vision and machine learning to process images, locate animals, apply species labels, and even suggest matching individuals from within their database. Since launching, the platforms have served over 1,800 researchers, tracked more than 200,000 individual animals across the globe, and recorded over one million sightings.
“At Wild Me, it’s been our mission from day one to create and scale tools to empower conservationists and protect global biodiversity and wildlife, what started out as a project to monitor and track whale sharks turned into a global platform with a vast database covering many different terrestrial and marine species. We’re proud to have found a like-minded partner in Conservation X Labs and are pleased to join forces to carry forward our shared vision of preventing the sixth mass extinction.”
With the merger, CXL will integrate Wild Me’s technology into its product offerings, including Sentinel, an AI toolkit that makes conservation tools smarter. Sentinel upgrades monitoring tools like trail cameras. Integrating Wild Me’s AI for individual animal re-ID can provide Sentinel with the ability to notify conservation authorities not only that a jaguar was sighted by a device, but also which individual jaguar passed in front of the camera in near real-time.
Through this system, monitoring devices can be turned into active tools that directly address some of the underlying drivers of extinction including preventing the spread of invasive species and wildlife trafficking.
“Our future depends on the health of our climate and biodiversity and the organizations that will solve the mounting environmental problems now confronting humanity. Conservation X Labs and Wild Me do vital, cutting-edge work to secure the health of our planet. Combining the expertise of these two innovative organizations creates a powerful synergy for rapid progress.”
With the integration of Wild Me’s technologies, Sentinel will offer conservationists and researchers even more powerful AI for tracking species in the wild.
About Conservation X Labs (CXL)
Conservation X Labs creates solutions to prevent the sixth mass extinction by developing transformative technologies, harnessing innovation through competitions, and building a community of innovators across disciplines. With the belief that humans have the power to solve the problems they've created, CXL stands at the forefront of conservation technology. Learn more at www.conservationxlabs.org.
Media Contact
Lindsey Garrison, Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing
Conservation X Labs
press@conservationxlabs.org
Recognition of CXL’s Sentinel smart camera system as best new conservation technology product of 2023
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA — November 8, 2023 — Conservation X Labs (“CXL”) announced today that it was named a winner of the 2023 Conservation Technology Award by EarthRanger, a leading protected area management software from the Allen Institute for AI (AI2). The award recognizes Sentinel, a smart camera system designed and engineered by CXL for the frontlines of the biodiversity crisis. Sentinel provides near real-time information to rangers, conservationists, and researchers, enabling more dynamic protected area management and faster response to important events in the wild.
Sam Kelly, Director of Conservation Technology at Conservation X Labs, accepting the 2023 EarthRanger Conservation Technology Award
““We are immensely proud of this recognition of the Sentinel by EarthRanger. Our goal is to democratize frontier technology for all conservationists globally with the power of artificial intelligence to monitor and understand wildlife and wildlands, and the threats they face, in near real-time. Ultimately, this will help researchers and conservationists better preserve and protect our planet’s biodiversity.” ”
Sentinel deployment with Osa Conservation in Costa Rica
The CXL team began developing Sentinel in 2019, and have since deployed 115 Sentinel devices across six countries for various use cases including invasive species monitoring, anti-poaching detection, and animal behavior research. Sentinel enables near real-time monitoring on existing wildlife monitoring systems, such as camera traps with customizable AI and satellite communications.
““My hope is that Sentinel is a force multiplier for those on the frontlines of wildlife conservation and that it makes their job more effective by offering real-time visibility into the threats that previously were only visible months later after a hike to retrieve an SD card. We are ecstatic that AI2, EarthRanger, and the expert judging panel felt that Sentinel is a critical tool for wildlife conservation.””
The CXL team plans to use the $15,000 grant to conduct deployments in under-resourced conservation areas where the Sentinel can make a dramatic difference.
Sentinel deployment by community member in Colombia
About Conservation X Labs (CXL)
Conservation X Labs creates solutions to prevent the sixth mass extinction by developing transformative technologies, harnessing innovation through competitions, and building a community of innovators across disciplines. With the belief that humans have the power to solve the problems they've created, CXL stands at the forefront of conservation technology. Learn more at www.conservationxlabs.org.
Media Contact
Lindsey Garrison, Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing
Conservation X Labs
press@conservationxlabs.org
Solutions are result of two-day Big Think ideation workshop as part of latest update to Extinction Solutions Index
The ESI Big Think took place in Brooklyn, NY on September 14-15, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Conservation X Labs (“CXL”), a leading technology-driven conservation organization dedicated to preventing the sixth mass extinction, today shared 25 high-leverage solutions for biodiversity conservation that came out of its recent Big Think ideation workshop at Newlab HQ in New York. The two-day event, held on September 14th and 15th, brought together researchers, scientists, innovators, and conservationists from around the world to discuss, collaborate, and ultimately come up with and share actionable solutions for biodiversity conservation. These solutions were added to the Extinction Solutions Index (“ESI”), a robust repository designed to centralize and prioritize measures to combat species extinction.
“Our planet is on the brink of a sixth mass extinction, the first ever caused by human actions,” commented Dr. Paul Bunje, President and Co-Founder of Conservation X Labs. “The Extinction Solutions Index is our proactive response to this looming crisis. By identifying and quantifying the highest-impact solutions to prevent extinction and promote recovery, ESI is set to be a game-changer for the world of biodiversity conservation.”
The ESI, developed in collaboration with renowned partners such as Project Drawdown, University of Oxford, Re:wild, International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Green Status of Species, Wildlife Conservation Society, One Earth, and Adventure Scientists, is designed to evaluate, compare, and rank the most effective and efficient solutions to the escalating biodiversity crisis. The ESI Big Think seeks to harness collective intelligence from both inside and outside the conservation community. Through collaborative engagement, participants identified key sectors contributing to biodiversity loss, generate high-impact solutions, foster partnerships, and make commitments to drive forward impactful conservation strategies.
Participants to the ESI Big Think included researchers and scientists, innovators, and conservationists.
The initial draft of 25 solutions coming out of the ESI Big Think focus on five core areas: land and sea use, overexploitation, climate change, pollution, and invasive alien species and disease. These are the beginning hypotheses of a comprehensive solutions analysis, to be refined by the CXL team over the coming months, to meet the global scale of biodiversity loss. Many additional solutions will also be analyzed by the ESI.
Land and sea use
1. Optimize crop yield
2. Create incentives for standing forests and habitat
3. Reduce food waste
4. Develop construction alternatives (pulp, paper)
5. Design products for longevity and re-use
Overexploitation
6. Develop low cost technology of illegal trade and traceability
7. Create replacements for traditional medicine and luxury goods
8. Restore, retire, and rehabilitate lands and soils to increase abundance and productivity while decreasing expansion
9. Design no take zones with improved monitoring and transparency technology
10. Reduce by-catch through management practices and technologies
Climate change
11. Scale renewable energy (wind, solar)
12. Support sustainable travel alternatives through infrastructure, such as bike lanes and car free zones
13. Change diets to be more plant-rich
14. Construct green buildings through retrofiting and redesigning
15. Coordinate comprehensive, integrated land, sea, and urban planning
Pollution
16. Create and implement filtration and waste treatment systems
17. Develop alternative materials (concrete, fabrics, plastics, pervious surfaces) with biodegradability features
18. Address agricultural waste and runoff practices and products (develop crop strains for resilience, and alternative fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides)
19. Reduce air pollution reduction via renewables and electrification
20. Design circular economies for waste and input reduction
Invasive alien species and disease
21. Implement wildlife friendly farming and ranching
22. Advance remote sensor technology in managed meat and food production facilities to increase rapid/automatic detection
23. Empower communities with monitoring and reporting technologies to increase sustainable market & hunting practices
24. Utilize alternative proteins for food security and reduced disease
25. Develop import and export rapid/automatic detection (pet trade, supply chains, shipping)
“Conservation efforts, historically, have been focused more on identifying endangered species rather than on actionable solutions," said Dr. Alex Dehgan, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Conservation X Labs. "Our ESI initiative, anchored in research and collaboration, aims to change this narrative. We're moving from reactive conservation to a proactive, solutions-driven approach.”
Rachel Martin, Extinction Solutions Index and Research Manager at Conservation X Labs, elaborated on the workshop’s objectives and next steps: “These solutions that came out of the ESI Big Think are technologies and practices that will need to be supported by key enabling conditions—like community buy-in, social justice, governance, science and technology, and finance—to be successful and scale globally. The next step in turning these solutions into action is to refine the scale and scope of these ideas and launch our working groups to distill these solutions into real impact.”
About Conservation X Labs (CXL)
Conservation X Labs creates solutions to prevent the sixth mass extinction by developing transformative technologies, harnessing innovation through competitions, and building a community of innovators across disciplines. With the belief that humans have the power to solve the problems they've created, CXL stands at the forefront of conservation technology. Learn more at www.conservationxlabs.org.
Media Contact
Lindsey Garrison, Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing
Conservation X Labs
press@conservationxlabs.org
