Using AI, the Rainforest Connection (RFCx) is a science- and technology-driven nonprofit detecting and preventing deforestation and supporting biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring in 119 countries.
Founded in 2014, RFCx accomplishes this work by combining the power of acoustics, AI, an international team of field workers, scientists, engineers, and data scientists, and on-the-ground collaborators. By utilizing acoustic data and AI, they can gather data on the presence, distribution, and behavior of a wide range of species, from birds and mammals to insects and frogs, as well as patterns of threats. This information can then be used to inform conservation and management decisions, including identifying key biodiversity areas, establishing protected areas, evaluating wildlife management initiatives, and developing conservation strategies tailored to different species.
RFCx focuses on real-time threat detection of illegal activities, such as logging and poaching, using acoustic technology. To decrease illegal activity and protect threatened ecosystems, they developed recorders called Guardians, which are placed in the canopy and run in real time. The Guardians automatically detect the sounds of chainsaws or gunshots and send alerts to rangers or communities via the Guardian Mobile and Web App, who can then immediately take action to stop illicit activities.
The threat detection pipeline developed by RFCx has been adopted and successfully deployed across 25 countries.
To monitor biodiversity, RFCx aids partners end-to-end and/or in specific areas with their biodiversity monitoring projects using acoustics and AI with planning, executing, and understanding results. They produce long-term solutions to biodiversity monitoring by creating regional Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) that automate species detections of hundreds of species from sound recordings; they have classified almost 1,500 species around the world for automatic detection from 16 CNNs their team has developed. This allows on-the-ground collaborators to detect species and monitor their behavior long-term for the purpose of enabling data-driven conservation decisions and actions. Their team also conducts ecoacoustic analyses, combining species-specific and soundscape results from acoustic analysis with climatic and environmental variables to model ecological processes.
Our speaker, Dr. Sarika Khanwilkar, has dedicated her career to conserving endangered species and improving planetary health through data-driven action. Before joining Rainforest Connection (RFCx), a conservation technology startup and nonprofit, she got her PhD in Ecology from Columbia University and was a Fulbright scholar.
Dr. Khanwilkar has conducted research on the illegal wildlife trade, forest-based livelihoods, and forest health.
She also is a founder of a nonprofit dedicated to tiger conservation and co-founder of one of India’s first research projects using sound to assess biodiversity.
Most of her free time is spent in the forests of central India looking for tigers and admiring trees.
At RFCx, she is Head of Partnerships and actively involved in using scalable technologies for high-impact conservation work across the globe.
To learn more, go to:
https://www.rfcx.org
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Podcast and Zoom Host: Rushton Hurley
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Audio edited and enhanced with: Descript Studio Sound
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