Eric Becker in his workshop. Credit: Josh Katz
When most people imagine wildlife conservation, they picture volunteers rescuing a sea turtle from a tangled fishing net in the middle of the ocean or protecting wildlife corridors in Africa to connect isolated elephant populations. They most likely do not imagine someone coding in their garage in Pensacola, Florida. However, it is the code, circuit boards, and other elements of science and engineering I work with daily that are opening a new frontier in the fight to save our planet’s wildlife. As advanced equipment, software and information become cheaper and more readily accessible, technology may prove to be the upper hand conservationists have been looking for as threats to wildlife evolve and accelerate.
While much of the technology now being implemented in conservation has been around for decades, it once existed almost solely in the realm of military defense due to high costs of both equipment and expertise. Likewise, it was in the field of military defense where I first got my start, making UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), a term often synonymous with drones. It wasn’t until 2012 when I was working for one of the first commercial drone manufacturers, that World Wildlife Fund (WWF) was awarded a grant to help stop poaching using the devices, and I was invited to WWF’s headquarters for a meeting. During that meeting, I realized this was the space I was meant to be in—using my skills and knowledge not to make weapons, but to save nature.
Credit: Josh Katz
Since I joined WWF and became the first conservation engineer at the organization, we have been able to draw inspiration from historically militarized technology to craft creative new ways to conserve wildlife. For example, in Kenya, park rangers now use thermal imaging cameras that we designed to detect poachers from miles away, even in the dead of night. We are also testing snare detecting radar drones to find and remove deadly poaching traps from the savannahs of Africa. Most recently, we have begun developing prototypes of acoustic vector sensors—technology pioneered by the US Navy in the 1970s for underwater submarine tracking—to enable real-time 3-D geolocating of gibbons in Vietnam.
© Thermal Imaging camera | WWF-US/Nathan Mitchell
Over the next decade, cheaper and more accurate tracking devices—combined with advancements in other software—could enable conservationists to build a comprehensive picture of species populations without causing animals stress through human interaction. Technological advancements like these will hopefully provide scientists, rangers, and communities with more accurate information about the wildlife around them and allow for quicker decision making. These advancements will be especially valuable in areas where time is of the utmost importance, such as in Asia where human-elephant conflict remains one of the main threats to both elephants and local communities.
A collection of deadly poaching snares | © WWF-US / Justin Mott
But we can’t rely on technology alone. Education and training—specifically in the communities where these new technologies are being used—is just as important. One of my proudest moments came during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, when a complete travel ban threatened to shut down my work in Kenya. Instead of seeing that as lost time, I spent thousands of hours over Zoom with my local counterparts, teaching them how to solder, use oscilloscopes, build circuit boards, and program them. Now, the local team works independently, conducting site surveys, designing systems, and maintaining the devices we implemented. As I taught them the pillars of engineering, they taught me about the rhythms of the rainy season, sites where wildlife congregate, locations of poaching hotspots, and the temperament of local baboons. Those exchanges helped me realize that a lasting conservation impact can only be achieved by engaging local communities and ensuring that our collective skills, knowledge and experience are informing decisions made on the ground.
As the frontier of conservation engineering advances, it is transforming what we believe is possible and restoring hope to environmental fights once written off as lost. So, for those out there who are deeply passionate about saving our planet and all its wild inhabitants but aren’t sure how to contribute, engineering might just be for you— and it has never been easier to take the first steps. Platforms like WILDLABS offer a forum for curious conservationists to share ideas, learn, and support each other in the pursuit of defending nature’s biodiversity and shaping the future of life on Earth.