Keynote speech 2: Conservation drones: Promises and pitfalls

Environmental degradation continues to take a significant toll on natural habitats, biodiversity and human communities worldwide. Remote sensing is increasingly being used to monitor changes in forest cover, species distributions and carbon stocks. However, data derived from space-borne remote sensors can be prohibitively costly and inaccessible for conservationists in many developing countries. In 2012, Prof. Koh founded a non-profit organisation known as ‘ConservationDrones.org’ to share his experience of using low-cost unmanned aircraft for monitoring orang-utans and other species in the rainforests of Southeast Asia. Since then, his team has travelled to more than a dozen countries to bring this technology to fellow biologists around the world. Prof. Koh will talk about the various applications of conservation drones for ecological and conservation research.