tech

February 20, 2026

Google: How AI is Making Waves in Wildlife Conservation

Google's recent study examines how AI and cutting-edge technologies can better protect biodiversity and address the global nature crisis with open data

Google: How AI is Making Waves in Wildlife Conservation

TL;DR

  • AI and cutting-edge technologies can help protect biodiversity and address the global nature crisis.
  • Less than 25% of countries have clear goals aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework due to data gaps.
  • Wildlife Insights provides the world's largest publicly accessible database of camera trap images.
  • Global Fishing Watch uses AI to analyze ship movements and identify illegal fishing activities.
  • iNaturalist is a citizen science platform that allows users to document biodiversity with their mobile phones.
  • Three critical areas for progress include expanding primary biodiversity data collection, developing open AI systems, and enhancing capacity and knowledge sharing.
  • Risks include AI expertise concentration in a few countries, the environmental footprint of AI systems, and bias in training data.
  • Global financing for nature needs to increase by US$500bn a year to achieve global goals.

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