Nature and all it has to offer is worth approximately $44 trillion in economic value, more than half of the planet’s total GDP. Furthermore, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2023, half of the world’s economic output depends on fully functioning natural systems. However, biodiversity and entire ecosystems are at risk of collapse within the next decade.
Therefore, it includes nature tech, i.e. any technology that helps promote the conservation and conservation of nature.
Nature tech is proving to be a rising star for investors. In 2022, the sector received $1.6 billion in venture capital funding, and CTVC, a firm specializing in analyzing global climate technology funding trends, predicts that markets such as nature tech will continue to grow in 2024 and 2025. I expected it to continue.
So, given the bright future of this sector, how can nature technologies ensure the sustainability of the transformation?
Nature tech and AI
Nature technology primarily consists of AI and satellite data working together to track, monitor, and model potential future outcomes regarding the natural world.
The technology will work in conjunction with those still in their roles on the ground, potentially stopping or even preventing everything from devastating natural disasters to deforestation and poaching.
Images and data captured from satellites, drones, and local cameras can be analyzed by AI to identify trends.
“AI actually processes, synthesizes, and It’s about combining them and exploring insights.” The company is called Green Biz Group.
satellite image
Biodiversity and land management data collected from satellites is essential to the success of nature technology. High-resolution images taken from his more than 3,000 satellites orbiting the Earth can show the destruction of natural resources, such as deforestation, in real time.
Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer at Microsoft, said: “Satellite imagery allows us to see where deforestation is likely to occur. Because we know when the roads will be cut.”
Nakagawa emphasized that this information is also preventive, citing Amazon Conservation, an organization that uses satellite imagery, drones, and GIS to detect deforestation throughout the Amazon rainforest. . Organizations can then immediately report illegal activities to authorities.
Another important service of satellite imagery is wildfire prevention. “7 gigatonnes of carbon were emitted from wildfires,” Nakagawa said, emphasizing the impact of emissions from wildfires alone. But with satellite imagery, businesses and organizations can proactively “improve resiliency, optimize, and predict wildfire response and response.”
data sourcing
Once the pool of relevant data is exhausted, NatureTech’s influence will cease completely.
Molly Wood, founder and CEO of Molly Wood Media, who participated in the same panel, said, “There is a lack of a lot of data from which to draw insights at this stage of the game.” Stated. In fact, according to Nakagawa, all the data currently used in existing natural technologies only accounts for 7% of his data on global biodiversity and ecosystems.
Efforts are underway to lower this barrier. The Task Force on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures has released a report calling for the creation of a global nature-related data facility to be published in 2023.
Meanwhile, companies such as Nature Metrics have developed technology that can detect trace amounts of DNA in water and soil samples. This is used to identify all the organisms that live in the local ecosystem.
But core team member Millie Chapman, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and Climate Linkage AI, says the barriers created are due to larger systemic issues.
“We probably think we have a lot of information about the world, but in reality that information is incredibly biased and skewed along social and political lines,” Chapman said. said during a panel discussion. For example, Chapman said the amount of biodiversity data collected from communities that have historically avoided redlining in the United States is nearly twice the amount collected from redlining areas. Ta.
As the nature tech sector advances and grows, it is important to expand data collection at the same time. Left unchecked, the algorithms fed to AI will continue these unfair trends.
“As we start leveraging all this data and feeding it into AI models and decision-making algorithms, how do we make sure we close the data gaps so that social inequalities don’t increase in the future?” Chapman asked.
