How technology is helping in the fight to preserve biodiversity

22 February 2014

Unique insights into how technology is enabling new ways of monitoring and mapping biodiversity were given by Oxford Martin School academics in the latest in the school's 'Blurring the Lines' seminar series.

Academics described their work on tools that allow detailed mapping of biodiversity, an app to identify birdsong and potential ways to remotely identify and eliminate disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Professor Kathy Willis, Co-Director of the Biodiversity Institute, founded by the school, explained the current threat to biodiversity in unprotected areas. "Basically 88 per cent of our land is like the Wild West; it's free to be converted to other uses, for food or fuel. People are asking whether biodiversity is a luxury we can ill afford now, and whether it should be at the bottom of the list. But there has been a real shift in thinking about biodiversity as 'natural capital' and what it provides for human beings."