Conservation X Labs Shares 25 Impactful Solutions for Biodiversity Conservation
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
