ECC Seminar: Joycelyn Longdon

Join us for an exciting Seminar on Ecoacoustics and Conservation!

The field of ecoacoustics has experienced remarkable growth in the last decade, driven by advances in machine learning and more affordable hardware. This progress has enabled the easier collection and analysis of large quantities of acoustic recordings, which are essential for biodiversity monitoring, research, and conservation. However, alongside these technological advancements, a critical issue has emerged—an imbalance in resources, expertise, and engagement between the Global North and South, particularly affecting Indigenous and Local Communities (IPLCs).

On Thursday, 7th November at 5pm in the Syndics Room, 17 Mill Lane, Joycelyn Longdon will delve into this complex issue in her seminar on ecoacoustics and its challenges in conservation. While ecoacoustics relies heavily on citizen scientists—particularly birding enthusiasts—for data collection and labeling, the communities most closely connected to the ecosystems being monitored are often left out of the conversation.

This seminar promises to spark important conversations about the future of conservation and how we can foster more inclusive, collaborative, and sustainable efforts to protect our planet’s biodiversity.

Abstract:

Within the last decade, the field of ecoacoustics has seen accelerated growth due to advances in machine learning and reduced hardware costs that have facilitated easier collection and analysis of vast quantities of acoustic environmental recordings for essential biodiversity monitoring, research and conservation. Research in these fields has an established tradition of participation, supported by the expertise and labour of citizen scientists, primarily birding enthusiasts, in data collection or labelling tasks. Despite there existing significant overlap between regions of high biodiversity and the lands and livelihoods of Indigenous and Local communities (IPLC’s), like many other approaches to conservation, the field of ecoacoustics suffers from asymmetrical distribution of resources, expertise, equipment and engagement between the Global North and Global South, specifically, with local forest communities living in the ecosystems being monitored. This lack of engagement with forest communities and their beliefs and practices originates from colonialism and has been continued through neocolonial approaches, often resulting in tension between conservation practitioners, projects, and forest communities. This exclusion extends to the deployment and design of new ecoacoustic technologies, with Indigenous or Local Communities “seldom…involved in the technology design of conservation tools which results in the design of non-intuitive systems”, often leading to mistrust in the technology itself and its purpose for being introduced or deployed.  The rise in computational approaches to conservation and deployment of conservation technologies in forest landscapes threatens to compound and widen the disconnect between conservation projects and forest-dwelling communities, weakening important links to essential local knowledge and limiting the opportunity for effective, equitable and sustainable conservation interventions.