Digital technology and the conservation of nature

Ambio 2015, 44(Suppl. 4):S661–S673 DOI 10.1007/s13280-015-0705-1 Digital technology and the conservation of nature Koen Arts, René van der Wal, William M. Adams Abstract Digital technology is changing nature conservation in increasingly profound ways. We describe this impact and its significance through the concept of ‘digital conservation’, which we found to comprise five pivotal dimensions: data on nature, data on people, data integration and analysis, communication and experience, and participatory governance. Examining digital innovation in nature conservation and addressing how its development, implementation and diffusion may be steered, we warn against hypes, techno-fix thinking, good news narratives and unverified assumptions. We identify a need for rigorous evaluation, more comprehensive consideration of social exclusion, frameworks for regulation and increased multisector as well as multi-discipline awareness and cooperation. Along the way, digital technology may best be reconceptualised by conservationists from something that is either good or bad, to a dual-faced force in need of guidance. Keywords Digital conservation
Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
The Information Age
Nature conservation
Biodiversity
Innovation INTRODUCTION The capacity of digital technology to change lives, economies, cultures and societies is universally accepted. Commentators argue that we have entered the ‘Information Age’ (Castells 2010). The internet and associated information and communications technologies (ICTs, e.g. broadband, All online sources mentioned in the footnotes were last accessed on 16–08–2015. computers, wireless communication) have created digital networks through which flow large amounts of information. Unlike previous technological revolutions, information is now the central component around which technologies revolve (Castells 2010). This results in new modes of business, communication and governance in many societal domains, including the environmental (Mol 2008). The digital revolution (involving the use of computers and binary numeric forms of information) is directly relevant to the social practices and organisations concerned with the conservation of nature. Nature conservation is an umbrella term that refers to a plethora of ideas, practices and values, differing for individuals and organisations alike (Adams 2004; Sandbrook et al. 2010). Digital applications have started to gain prominence in nature conservation, in both number and diversity, and are progressively shaping conservation discourses and practices. Digital technology increasingly influences the ways members of the public perceive, think about and engage with nature (Kahn 2011; Verma et al. 2015). The technologies of the Information Age are often greeted with optimism by conservationists because they promise more data, faster processing, better information access and connectivity, new communication routes, exciting visual representations and empowering decision-making support systems. Such optimism may be deceptive in light of the many practical challenges (Joppa 2015; Newey et al. 2015), and the unintended consequences that technology use may bring (Humle et al. 2014; Maffey et al. 2015). Here we use the term ‘digital conservation’ as shorthand for the broad range of developments at the interface of digital technology and nature conservation (Van der Wal and Arts 2015). We consider the impact and significance of digital technology, understood as the collection of processes and materials related to the innovation, development,  The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com www.kva.se/en 123 S662 Ambio 2015, 44(Suppl. 4):S661–S673 implementation and diffusion of digital technology. Our approach draws on Feenberg’s (1999) ‘critical theory’, in which technology is understood as value-laden, and Kranzberg’s (1986, p. 545) ‘First Law of Technology’: ‘‘Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral’’. We concur that technology can be understood as a force (cf. Castells 2010) that shows an ‘‘ambivalent face, empowering and hindering at the same time’’ (Lanzara 2009, p. 38), and accept that nature conservation practice, like conservation science, is ‘mission-driven’ (Meine et al. 2006; Mace 2014; Maffey et al. 2015). Therefore, we view it as vital for conservationists to understand how their mission is affected by digital technology. exhaustive set of sources (non-peer-reviewed online sources are referred to in footnotes). Although we discuss the identified dimensions separately, their boundaries are fluid. As such, digital conservation follows a pattern identified in other domains with ‘‘growing convergence of specific technologies into a highly integrated system, within which old, separate technological trajectories become literally indistinguishable’’ (Castells 2010, pp. 71–72). In the Discussion, we address the challenge of how to increase benefits associated with digital technology in nature conservation while reducing associated risks. DATA ON NATURE Study approach Possibilities In this paper, we seek to identify and analyse the application of digital technology in nature conservation. To undertake this analysis, it has been necessary to extend our search beyond peer-reviewed publications and other scholarly works. Formal academic literature is often published following a long delay, thus making it a potentially poor indicator of the current state of affairs. Furthermore, commercial and other non-academic developments, often arising rapidly, are commonly described in grey literature and online sources. Systematic review methodology tends to avoid these in their emphasis on data quality (e.g. Pullin and Stewart 2004). Our approach owes more to horizon scanning exercises, which aim to identify relatively unknown phenomena at the earliest possible stage (Sutherland et al. 2014). We conducted keyword searches with Google Scholar and Web of Science, using search terms related to ‘nature conservation’ and ‘digital technology’.1 In addition, we gathered material from participants at the first International Conference on Digital Conservation (21–23 May 2014, Aberdeen, UK) and through Twitter accounts (Amanatidou et al. 2012). Returns were assessed (by title, introduction, abstract, images, and where needed, body text) to derive recurrent themes, which were subsequently grouped (Strauss and Corbin 1998). On the basis of this, we identified five key dimensions which have a substantial impact on nature conservation (Fig. 1). Each dimension, and its most important associated possibilities and problems, is discussed and supported by an illustrative but not 1 Nature conservation: nature, natural, conservation, environment, biodiversity, ecosystem, ecology, flora, fauna, wildlife, wild, wilderness, natural area, national park, endangered species, communitybased. Digital technology: digital, computer, smartphone, tablet, computa (...truncated)