Digital Ways for Biodiversity Conservation: From Innovation to Action

GeSI’s report sets out 15 recommendations for using digital technologies responsibly and collaboratively to strengthen biodiversity knowledge, conservation and action.

Biodiversity is the infrastructure of life. It underpins the ecosystems, supply chains, food systems, water resources and natural capital on which economies and societies depend. Yet biodiversity continues to decline at an unprecedented rate, placing nature, communities and long-term economic resilience under growing pressure.

GeSI’s report, Digital Ways for Biodiversity Conservation: Priorities and Recommendations for a Shared Agenda, examines how digital technologies can help society better understand, monitor and protect biodiversity. It also presents a practical agenda for closer cooperation across the technology, science, conservation, finance and policy communities.

As Luís Neves, CEO of GeSI, writes in the report’s foreword:

“Digital technologies are becoming the operating system for the biodiversity transition.”

Connecting the digital and biodiversity agendas

The report builds on discussions held during the Biodiversity Futures programme at the Digital with Purpose Global Summit 2023 in Lisbon, together with expert perspectives and relevant research.

It explores a rapidly expanding range of digital solutions, including satellites, drones, remote sensing, sensors, artificial intelligence, environmental DNA, computational bioacoustics, blockchain, mobile applications, virtual and augmented reality, and data-sharing platforms.

These technologies are already helping researchers, communities and conservation practitioners to:

Monitor ecosystems and changes across land and ocean environments;
Identify species and analyse large volumes of biodiversity data;
Detect deforestation, poaching and other illegal activities;
Strengthen traceability across natural-resource supply chains;
Predict ecosystem risks and environmental change;
Expand public participation in biodiversity research; and
Improve access to scientific knowledge and conservation tools.

A review undertaken during the preparation of the report identified nearly 300 biodiversity-related projects, infrastructures and applications. This illustrates both the scale of innovation already under way and the considerable potential for further action.

However, technology alone is not the solution. Digital tools can introduce challenges related to accessibility, cost, technical capacity, privacy, bias, data ownership and environmental impact. Without the meaningful participation of local and Indigenous communities, they may also marginalise traditional knowledge rather than help preserve it.

The report therefore calls for digital solutions that are responsible, inclusive and grounded in clearly identified conservation needs.

Seven areas for action

The report organises its priorities around seven interconnected areas:

Solve: Address the drivers of biodiversity loss and commit to reversing ecosystem degradation.

Understand: Accelerate efforts to map and understand life on Earth and its contributions to society.

Collaborate: Strengthen cooperation among technology companies, biodiversity experts, conservation organisations, policymakers, local and Indigenous communities, and other stakeholders.

Develop: Co-create accessible digital solutions through bottom-up dialogue, supported by responsible business models and ethical frameworks.

Support: Secure long-term financing, research infrastructure and capacity-building, particularly in less-resourced regions.

Train: Build digital capabilities while preserving traditional knowledge and supporting a new generation of biodiversity experts.

Communicate: Make biodiversity knowledge accessible, strengthen public engagement and connect people with nature in their everyday environments.

From technological potential to measurable impact

Across these seven areas, the report sets out 15 recommendations. Priorities include developing an internationally accepted biodiversity metric; addressing global data gaps; digitising scientific collections and making them openly accessible; investing in technologies for ocean research; expanding citizen science; and establishing guidelines for the responsible use of digital technologies in biodiversity.

The report also calls for stronger North–South and South–South cooperation, closer connections between the technology, biodiversity and financial communities, improved monitoring of biodiversity finance commitments, targeted capacity-building, and a permanent repository matching available technologies with specific conservation needs.

Professor Helena Freitas of the University of Coimbra, UNESCO Chair in Safeguarding Biodiversity for Sustainable Development, emphasises that technology must be combined with ecological knowledge, meaningful participation and new approaches to governance:

“Technology, combined with ecological knowledge, new governance approaches and meaningful participation, can help societies live with nature, make better collective decisions and redesign landscapes and seascapes for both biodiversity and people.”

Digital technologies should therefore do more than produce additional data. Properly designed, they can help make different values and trade-offs visible, support transparent deliberation, inform collective decisions and strengthen the role of communities in knowledge creation and environmental stewardship.

With the 2030 targets of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework approaching, the challenge is to move from isolated innovation to coordinated implementation at scale.

The report provides technology companies, scientists, conservationists, financial institutions, governments and communities with a shared foundation for action—and a pathway for ensuring that digital transformation becomes a positive force for biodiversity.