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EarthRanger, a program of Ai2, today announced the grantees of the 2024 Conservation Technology Award (CTA): Rainforest Foundation US and the Scottish Oceans Institute at the University of St Andrews. This annual program recognizes organizations driving innovation, making measurable conservation impacts, and accelerating the adoption of technology-driven solutions for wildlife conservation. This year’s grantees will each receive $15,000 to further their missions and expand their impact.
Now in its fourth year, the CTA has provided $120,000 in funding to conservation organizations across the globe, reflecting Ai2’s commitment to advancing the field of conservation through technology-driven solutions. From promoting human-wildlife coexistence to safeguarding threatened species and empowering the next generation of conservationists, the program continues to support organizations demonstrating how technology is changing the ways we protect wildlife and, in doing so, uplifting and improving human lives.
“Rainforest Foundation has been working with Indigenous communities for 35 years to protect locally and globally critical ecosystems. Their use of technology is not only creative and effective but also reminds us of the importance of Indigenous data sovereignty and governance - ensuring that local communities own the means and data for their conservation activities,” said Jes Lefcourt, Ai2’s Senior Director of Conservation Technology and director of the EarthRanger program. “The Scottish Oceans Institute has been improving the understanding of cetacean communication for 20 years. Their recent innovations using AI have improved the ability to track and monitor populations of these species and also highlight the individuality of the animals. These two organizations, and all of the Conservation Tech Award applicants, exemplify the incredible technology work being done every day to protect the world's wildlife and inspire all of us at Ai2.”
Rainforest Foundation US
Healthy tropical forests are critical in addressing our planet’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and threats to the livelihoods of Indigenous communities. However, deforestation—the large-scale clearing of forests for agriculture, logging, and other human activities—poses a significant threat to these ecosystems. While deforestation alerts, such as those from Global Forest Watch, provide a valuable bird’s-eye view of forest loss, these alerts rarely reach the remote rainforest communities that are most impacted.
Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS) is changing this through its Rainforest Alert program. The program equips Indigenous communities with the tools and training they need to monitor and respond to deforestation events, giving them a heads-up on what’s happening in their forests. By combining satellite data, smartphones, drones, and local knowledge, Rainforest Alert bridges the gap between what satellites are seeing and on-the-ground action.
When Global Forest Watch detects forest loss, alerts are sent to regional hubs, where data managers process and deliver them to off-grid communities. From there, community-based forest patrollers investigate and document the deforestation activity, presenting evidence to community assemblies, which determine the next steps–whether handling the situation internally or filing complaints with local authorities.
Since its launch in 2015 in Peru, the Rainforest Alert program has helped Indigenous communities reduce deforestation by 52% in areas employing the program. In 2024 alone, the program supported 60 Indigenous communities in monitoring and protecting over 800,000 hectares of rainforest in the Western Amazon.
With the expansion of the program already occurring in Brazil, Panama, and Guyana, RFUS also intends to incorporate biodiversity monitoring components, including camera traps and bioacoustic technology, to enhance the program’s ability to protect wildlife while scaling its replicable model to other vulnerable regions.
"Rainforest Foundation's approach of processing cloud-based remote sensing data, coupled with the in-person transportation of this data to affected, off-grid Indigenous communities, is commendable,” said Alasdair Davies, Director at Arribada, a UK-based conservation technology research and development organization, and one of the judges. “By ingesting real-time deforestation data and translating this into actionable evidence that is then shared by hand, the Rainforest Foundation is connecting remote communities to spatial data in a meaningful way, ensuring they can take action on the ground and facilitate an appropriate course of action."
Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St. Andrews
The Scottish Oceans Institute is being recognized for its work in marine conservation through the development and deployment of the Real-time Odontocete Call Classification Algorithm (ROCCA). The open-source, user-friendly, freely available, and AI-powered tool transforms how dolphins and whales (cetaceans) are monitored.
Dolphins and whales produce many different types of sound, and the sounds produced by different species often sound very similar to one another. ROCCA uses machine learning to classify species based on their vocalizations, allowing conservationists to overcome the limitations of traditional visual surveys by accurately identifying species through acoustic detection. Since dolphins, like humans, exhibit similar regional “accents,” acoustic classifiers tailored to one area may be less accurate elsewhere. By addressing these location-specific differences, ROCCA is helping those on the ground study dolphin populations, analyze behaviors and interactions, and mitigate human impacts like fishing interactions, naval sonar disruptions, and other human activities. ROCCA classifiers have been developed for species in the temperate and tropical Pacific Ocean, Hawaii, the northwest Atlantic, the northeast Atlantic, and the North Sea, and are used worldwide.
The Scottish Oceans Institute is scaling ROCCA’s applications to other species and ecosystems in regions like West Africa, Macaronesia, and the Mediterranean. At the same time, they provide online and in-person training, building local capacity for acoustic monitoring and cetacean conservation.
“The Scottish Oceans Institute is taking a beautifully practical approach to integrating automated data processing techniques into global bioacoustic monitoring of cetaceans,” shared Sara Beery, Assistant Professor at MIT CSAIL and one of the judges. “They focus not only on developing models but also on the technical and human infrastructure needed to ensure the technology extends beyond a proof of concept. By working with organizations to create regional acoustic classifiers tailored to local species and contexts, and by investing in open-source software and training programs, they build applied data science and modeling capacity within these organizations. This human investment is crucial to making these technologies, and the time and cost savings they provide, accessible and valuable to local partners on the ground.”
A Growing Legacy
The 2024 Conservation Technology Award celebrated an impressive array of applications from across the globe, addressing diverse conservation challenges. This year’s entries highlighted the potential of conservation technology, ranging from an early warning disease surveillance system to a field-deployable radio frequency scanner and hydrophones.
The Conservation Technology Award also recognizes six organizations that received honorable mentions this year:
- Fundación Oceanogràfic
- Help for Sustainable Development
- Lion Rangers
- Taronga Conservation Society Australia
- Tech 4 Conservation
- Wildlife Protection Solutions
As part of Ai2’s investments in conservation innovation, the CTA supports organizations driving transformative impact. This Giving Tuesday, we celebrate the recipients and all those working tirelessly to protect wildlife and wild places. Join us in supporting these efforts – your contribution to these organizations can help amplify their work and ensure a healthier, more sustainable planet for future generations.