"Techies enter the race to save the planet"

2006 Conservation & Appropriate Technology Conference

Conservationists are generally perceived to be green-wellie wearing, tree-hugging bearded people, who have yet to invest in a microwave because it’s regarded as new-fangled technology. However, a conference held at the Microsoft Research Centre, Cambridge on the 24^th/25^th January may have – for once and for all – laid rest to that image.

The Conservation and Appropriate Technology conference was put together by a group called “t4cd” – Technologies for Conservation and Development, and showcased a range of projects from around the world that are taking advantage of 21^st century leaps in commercial technologies. For example, the adaptation of 3G mobile technology has enabled grey seals in the North Sea to ‘phone in’ their movements and GPS coordinates to scientists at St. Andrews. Also being explored is the potential to use self-organising sensors attached to animals, which could “talk” to one another and reveal unique information on social behaviour, and complex networking that has until now been little known or understood. Even the powering of these systems can use inventive ‘energy scavenging’ techniques, converting the animals’ own movements and kinetic energy into the electrical energy needed to power the phone calls home.

Conservationists have also leapt at the advances in world-viewer software such as Google Earth, through which they can observe alterations in critical ecosystems in far-flung locations, and mobilise responses and resources from city offices in London to the wilds of the Serengeti. On-the-ground, the provision of high-speed internet connection in remote locations such as the ‘Impenetrable Forest’ of Bwindi, Uganda, means that scientists traditionally cut off from the outside world can now communicate freely. Also, with conservationists’ adaptations of PDA technology enabling icon driven data collection, local people with little capacity in the language of computers have the opportunity to become the managers of their own resources, contributing vital information for the conservation of their traditional lands and livelihoods.

Indeed the social and developmental aspects of these innovations became increasingly clear throughout the conference, as advances in technology are also providing critical alternative livelihoods for local people. Additionally the virtual information super-highway is inching increasingly into people’s lives, providing much needed education and awareness, essential for successful conservation of the worlds dwindling natural resources.

The t4cd project - a brainchild of two conservation NGOs, Fauna & Flora International and ResourceAfrica, and supported by Vodafone & Microsoft - aims to capitalise on this and become a ‘one-stop’ centre for technologists and conservationists alike to share information and inspire invention. And if the conference held in Cambridge is anything to go by, those bearded images of conservationists may truly be a thing of the past.