Published on March 1, 2024

This year’s World Wildlife Day explores how digital innovation is helping to conserve some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems and species. Many of Cartier for Nature’s partners are at the forefront of this transformation, combining established conservation knowledge and methods with cutting-edge science and technology, for the benefit of people and nature. As Julien Semelin, Head of Environment Investments at Cartier, explains: “Proven nature conservation approaches need to be complemented by new ideas if we are to increase the pace and scale of impact. That can involve the deployment of emerging technologies, but equally, for example, the revival of forgotten ancestral land or wildlife management practices”.

Sometimes, new ideas in conservation can look deceptively familiar. That’s the case with what are known as camera traps, automated cameras that take photos of passing wildlife for research. The approach is not new in itself, but its application has been radically empowered by innovations that now mean thousands of images can be analysed and classified rapidly and efficiently by AI-driven software.

Our partner China Green Foundation leverages these new tools to help protect the rare snow leopard in China’s Three-River-Source National Park. Working with the authorities and local livestock herders, they’ve set up hundreds of cameras, many connected over mobile phone networks for real-time data analysis, to form a large-scale monitoring system that keeps track of how the park’s animal populations are doing.

Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco, a new Cartier for Nature partner in Ecuador, works with camera traps in a similar way. Only it’s complementing them with cutting-edge audio technology to overcome the challenge of limited visibility in thick jungle and comprehensively detect any threats to biodiversity. Jocotoco has achieved this by deploying a network of highly sensitive microphones across the nature reserves to record the sounds of the forest. Using AI tools, Jocotoco’s team identifies the species present in the reserves, monitors how their populations are evolving, and pinpoints any human-driven threats such as illegal logging or poaching.

Another one of our partner organisation, Planet Indonesia has teamed up with conservation tech startup Rainforest Connection (RFCx) to apply the same approach – sometimes referred to as “eco-acoustics” – in order to better understand and protect the biodiversity of Borneo’s rain forests. In both cases, these emerging technologies allow local communities, organizations and authorities to make better, data-driven conservation decisions and react promptly and effectively to the environmental changes around them.

Technology can also help transform fisheries – and the lives of fishers – for the better. Along the coasts of Southern Africa, fishing is the main source of protein and income for millions of people. However, many fishers in this part of the world face extreme poverty and often lack access to fair market prices for their catches. In these dire straits, they feel unable to follow sustainable fishing practices and simply catch whatever they can. This puts further pressure on declining fish stocks and threatens the long-term food security of their communities.

Responding to this challenge, Cartier for Nature’s partner, ABALOBI, has developed a set of mobile phone applications that enable fishers to log their catches, track current prices and connect directly to the end consumer to sell at a fair, premium market price. Abalobi trains the participating fishers to use the apps, manage and log their catch data, and store their fish properly. In return, Abalobi fishing communities adhere strictly to sustainable catch quotas which allow fish populations to recover and fishers to thrive.

In every case, this seamless integration of new technology in established conservation strategies makes a massive difference on the ground – and in people’s lives.