Achieving Multiple Conservation Goals with Satellite-Based Monitoring and Alert Systems

Abstract

Conservation early warning and alert systems (CEAS) provide substantial opportunities to improve awareness of global change and deliver time-sensitive information to users taking measures to avert the loss of ecosystems that provide critical services to support human well-being. In recent years, the conservation community has fostered a proliferation of CEAS that utilize the near real-time capabilities of Earth observation satellites to monitor global changes and inform strategic and effective responses to emerging ecosystem threats. While scrutiny of the effectiveness of conservation interventions by researchers, practitioners, and funders has boosted more rigorous evaluations of conservation interventions in the past decade, assessments of how technologies like CEAS enable conservation actions are scarce. In this doctoral research, I reviewed the current suite of CEAS and highlighted gaps in the literature to describe or evaluate their applications. I collected users? and developers? experiences with CEAS across several countries and identified differential barriers to using CEAS for different populations while sourcing recommendations for improving design and access. Finally, I focused on the development of CEAS for tropical land management in Colombia and analyzed how institutions integrate CEAS into national decision-making frameworks. The overall results from this work suggest that dozens of CEAS provide cost-effective approaches for achieving multiple conservation goals. While some users are overwhelmed by the variety of systems available, many users, particularly those on the front lines of conservation, face numerous barriers preventing access to and effective use of satellite-based monitoring information. Funders should prioritize support for disseminating technology and alert information uptake over building more systems. Improvements in coordination, collaboration, and adequate resources to support technology use are required to increase CEAS use for diverse applications. The power of surveillance technologies like CEAS may also have unintended social and environmental consequences. Therefore, system developers and proponents of CEAS must understand the risks and follow guidelines to minimize further marginalizing vulnerable groups. Designing proxy measures for outcomes can enable rapid system adjustments to reduce risks and better connect the information to action. This research aims to improve the design and implementation of CEAS to fully realize the potential role of these systems in supporting global sustainability.