Programme Leader – Kaitiaki Intelligence Platforms. New Zealand
“The Eco-index: Automating Biodiversity Reporting in New Zealand“
Abstract
The rapid advancement and decreasing costs of sensing technologies hold the promise of automating environmental reporting, ushering in a new era of transparency for businesses, industry sectors, and national economies. Concurrently, there is a global trend towards the establishment of comprehensive environmental reporting frameworks and standards for businesses, with a shift from voluntary to mandatory reporting requirements at the national level. This talk delves into the development path and strategy of the Eco-index, which has devised a suite of tools geared towards facilitating the future automation of biodiversity reporting and the valuation of ecosystem services. Leveraging geospatial tools, the Eco-index has successfully crafted science-based targets and mapping suites for biodiversity restoration at national, regional, and catchment scales. Additionally, through the utilization of remote sensing technologies and artificial intelligence (AI), the Eco-index is automating the process of biodiversity detection. This breakthrough enables the measurement of progress toward set targets and offers a means of verifying ecosystem restoration efforts, thus paving the way for the development of future biodiversity credit systems. A pivotal factor contributing to the success of the Eco-index has been the formulation of a catchment-oriented approach that can be readily applied at highly localized levels, such as the farm scale. This accomplishment has been made possible through the collaboration of an interdisciplinary team of innovators and the active involvement of farmers, industry representatives, iwi, and government stakeholders in the testing and refinement of tools.
Bio
John is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury and Director of Earth Quotient, a consultancy focused on sustainable business development and environmental research. He currently leads three national research programmes focused on sustainability transition strategies for industries in the farming and fishing sectors. Much of John’s work has focused on the Māori economy and working with hapū (subtribes) and iwi (tribes) in the development of sustainable commercial models. In addition John has a range of governance roles with iwi and government, and also serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Click to download 2024 Slides in pdf.
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