Nature and all that it provides is worth around $44 trillion of economic value generation, more than half of the globe’s total GDP. Further, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2023, half of the world’s economic output is dependent on fully functioning natural systems. However, biodiversity and entire ecosystems are on the verge of collapse within the next 10 years.
Thus enters nature tech — any technology that serves to accelerate the conservation and preservation of nature.
Nature tech is proving to be a rising star for investors. In 2022, the sector received $1.6 billion in venture capital funding, and CTVC, a company specializing in the analyses of global climate tech funding trends, predicted that markets such as nature tech will continue to grow in 2024 and 2025.
So, given the bright future of the sector, how can nature tech transform sustainability?
Nature tech and AI
Nature tech is largely composed of AI and satellite data working in tandem to track, monitor and model potential future outcomes regarding the natural world.
This technology, also working together with people still filling boots-on-the-ground roles, has the potential to halt or even prevent everything from destructive natural disasters to deforestation to poaching.
Images and data captured from satellites, drones and local cameras are then analyzed by AI, which can identify trends.
"AI is really for crunching, synthesizing, coalescing and looking at the insights," said Elizabeth Hunter, chief operating officer and co-founder of Treeswift, of different data pools during a keynote panel last week at GreenBiz 24, hosted by this site’s parent company, GreenBiz Group.
Satellite imagery
Biodiversity and land management data gleaned from satellites is indelible to the success of nature tech. High-resolution images captured from the more than 3,000 satellites orbiting Earth can show the destruction of natural resources occurring in real time, such as deforestation.
"You can use satellite imagery to know where deforestation could happen because you can see when roads are being cut through forests to do greater deforestation and greater tree cutting," said Melanie Nakagawa, chief sustainability officer at Microsoft.
Nakagawa stressed that this information is also preventive, citing Amazon Conservation, an organization that uses satellite imagery, drones and GIS to discover deforestation throughout the entirety of the Amazon rainforest. The organization is then able to report the illegal activity to the authorities immediately.
Another vital service of satellite imagery is the prevention of wildfires. "Seven gigatons of carbon were emitted from wildfires," said Nakagawa to emphasize the emission impact alone of wildfires. But with satellite imagery, companies and organizations can proactively execute "better resilience and optimization and prediction around responding to and addressing wildfires."
Data sourcing
Nature tech’s impact will slam to a stop should pools of applicable data dry u
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