With the increasing public interest in artificial intelligence (AI), there is also increasing interest in learning about the benefits that AI can deliver to society. This book focuses on research advances in AI that benefit the conservation of wildlife, forests, coral reefs, rivers, and other natural resources. It presents how the joint efforts of researchers in computer science, ecology, economics, and psychology help address the goals of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Written at a level accessible to conservation professionals and AI researchers, the book offers both an overview of the field and an in-depth view of how AI is being used to understand patterns in wildlife poaching and enhance patrol efforts in response, covering research advances, field tests and real-world deployments. The book also features efforts in other major conservation directions, including protecting natural resources, ecosystem monitoring, and bio-invasion management through the use of game theory, machine learning, and optimization.

In recent decades, there has been increased interest in understanding ecosystems in order to be able to manage and conserve them. Yet examples of how research directly supports conservation are rare. Protected area managers and policy makers need scientific information from protected areas for policy development and to effectively devise, revise, and implement management strategies. Researchers seek a clear understanding of what types of research can directly support conservation efforts to guide them in the design of such projects. A variety of perspectives of what constitutes 'conservation' or 'applied' wildlife research may exist, and indeed conservation priorities do differ between sites so that ultimately, what we describe here is from one perspective and designing projects that directly support site conservation depends on a prior understanding of issues at the site. This book is intended to encourage thinking about what constitutes conservation research to be able to better develop projects that directly support conservation. The aim of this book is to support research that directly benefits conservation by reviewing applied research and providing examples in which it has been used for conservation purposes.

Despite Africa's rich biodiversity and the importance of its ecosystem services, it has relatively few collaborative, network-based studies that examine the ecological impacts of climate change. This book marks the beginning of such a collaboration. It covers ecological information that spans across five countries in the Albertine Rift region, reflects over 50 years of research, and includes contributions from 65 researchers who represent 44 organizations at work in 11 sites. It provides invaluable information about past and current trends in the status of species, ecosystems and associated threats, as well as recommendations for interventions.

With the increasing public interest in artificial intelligence (AI), there is also increasing interest in learning about the benefits that AI can deliver to society. This book focuses on research advances in AI that benefit the conservation of wildlife, forests, coral reefs, rivers, and other natural resources. It presents how the joint efforts of researchers in computer science, ecology, economics, and psychology help address the goals of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Written at a level accessible to conservation professionals and AI researchers, the book offers both an overview of the field and an in-depth view of how AI is being used to understand patterns in wildlife poaching and enhance patrol efforts in response, covering research advances, field tests and real-world deployments. The book also features efforts in other major conservation directions, including protecting natural resources, ecosystem monitoring, and bio-invasion management through the use of game theory, machine learning, and optimization.

In recent decades, there has been increased interest in applying science to the management of ecosystems. However, designing research programs that directly support conservation is never straightforward especially for research intended to support protected area conservation. A good understanding of the intensity of threats, their ramifications, and the impacts of conservation is central to conservation. This book and its complement for forests, is intended to increase understanding of what constitutes conservation research in protected areas and how it is applied.