The creation of a comprehensive, open-access DNA reference library of native plant and animal species was foundational to our solution. Recognizing that global databases lacked coverage for many Eastern Mediterranean species, we built the first Lebanese library encompassing plants, mammals, and now expanding to insects, birds, and fungi. This reference database improves the accuracy of DNA sequence matching and enables precise identification of species present in environmental samples. It also fills a critical regional data gap and facilitates ecological studies, biodiversity monitoring, and conservation planning. By publishing the library openly, we promote transparency, collaboration, and the potential for adaptation in similar biodiversity hotspots.

This building block provides hands-on training for researchers and conservationists in Benin and South Africa (offline) and globally (online via Zoom) on using Declas. The sessions cover:

• Software use: Uploading data, interpreting AI-generated results, and integrating findings into conservation strategies.
• Conservation advocacy: Raising awareness on vulture decline and AI’s role in scalable monitoring.

Trainees will learn to deploy Declas in field surveys, reducing reliance on manual counts while improving data accuracy. The hybrid approach ensures broad accessibility, empowering local teams with cost-effective technology.

Apart from common comprehension of wildlife, citizens can also get involved in the following advanced activities and become “citizen scientists”.

1. Verify the existence of wild animals through the AI recognition tool “Species Eye”;

2. Estimate the number of wild animals manually;

3. Select the species of wild animal;

4. Figure out the name of the wild animal through the AI recognition tool “Species Eye”;

5. Ensure the accuracy and consistency of data by marking the geographic location.

This mini program, through scanning or searching, provides the access for every citizen to infrared images of wildlife in his/her geographic location, which allows them to participate in the sharing of nature with wildlife in a simpler and more intuitive manner through this application.

The Mini Program, with AI intelligent recognition as the underlying technology and endangered species as the core targets for recognition, trains a large biodiversity recognition model capable of monitoring such systems as mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands and sandy lands. This recognition model features a powerful “engine” – Species Eye. As the fundamental and general model of “Wildlife Friends”, it is primarily characterized by strong learning capability, that is, multimodal recognition based on no or a few samples. It indicates that it can rapidly recognize the location and species information of multiple wild animals based on a few samples. For instance, it may take thousands of photos to be captured and days’ training for a traditional model to recognize a new species, but Species Eye can complete such mission quickly through a small number of photos, as well as trainings and iterations. In addition, it boasts a high extent of tolerance. It is no longer limited to the training and prediction for specific species with a powerful capability of open vocabulary identification and zero-sample recognition, and is able to accurately recognize and locate species without trained data. For instance, traditional models can merely recognize species based on trained data, such as tiger and antelope; while this new model can discriminate snow leopard and fox at the same time even without trained data of those two wild animals before. Another advantage of “Species Eye” is lower costs. Common AI models rely heavily on high-performance accelerator cards, which cause a high cost in hardware environment and its maintenance.

WeChat Mini Program is an application accessible without download, near at your fingertips just by scanning or searching. It is very simple to design a mini program, as a mini program development environment and developer ecosystem has been established in nearly two years. WeChat Mini Program is also an innovative achievement which genuinely influences general programmers in China’s IT industry for it involves over 1.5 million developers in its development together with WeChat. Its number has exceeded 1 million, encompassing more than 200 subdivided sectors and accommodating 200 million daily-active users.

1. Use without download: Users can open the mini program by scanning the QR code or searching in no need of download, which saves the storage space for mobile devices and lowers the usage threshold; they can quickly visit the mini program directly through WeChat to meet their temporary usage demands.

2. Low development costs and short cycle: The mini program sets a low technical standard and causes a small learning cost to developers based on front-end technology stacks (HTML/CSS/JS); and is compatible among various platforms and supports iOS and Android after development, which saves human labor and time costs.

3. Powerful traffic inlet and social fission: WeChat boasts 1.3 billion monthly-active users so it is easy to cultivate a sound user base. It supports the sharing channels to chat boxes, Moments, official accounts, and Search. Social dissemination, through sharing, group buying, and bargaining, can rapidly multiply and is suitable for marketing activities.

Agroecology is a holistic approach, often described as a practice, a science and a social movement. Agroecology is the base for all interventions suggested in this solution.

As the initiated mindset change requires a fundamental, global behavioural change, an essential part of the efforts are directed to advocacy and awareness building activities such as information spreading through media houses, social media channels and conducting field visits with stakeholders from government, policy makers, educational entities, NGOs, donors and the private sector. 

Malawi has a population of around 22 million (worldometer 2025), of which almost 18 million are smallhoder farmers. If the initiated grassroot movement can be strengthened, Malawi could act as a leader in the global agroecological movement.

FLR is a long-term investment and local communities desire short term benefits to support their households and change behaviour. The support from National Bank enabled communities to get jobs for the completion of silvicultural tasks.  

Communication, advocacy, public policies, research and teaching programs take in account the general phenomenon in view of the transformation of the dominant paradigms of development, growth, wealth, power and freedom embedded at political, economic, educational and cultural levels. Earth’s regeneration and mankind’s regeneration, as faces of the same coin, are addressed simultaneously, for their mutual support, in view of all dimensions of being in the world, as they combine, as donors and recipients, to induce the events (deficits/assets), cope with consequences (desired/undesired) and contribute for change (potential outputs): intimate, interactive, social and biophysical. In the socio-cultural learning niches, heuristic-hermeneutic experiences could generate awareness, interpretation and understanding beyond established stereotypes, from a thematic (“what” is at stake), an epistemic (“how” to understand and define the events) and a strategic (who, when, where) point of view. 

Another key component of the Agroecology Leadership Academy was the regular evaluation of its outcomes. Participants were frequently surveyed about their experiences with the Academy, its content, and their personal progress. This feedback was utilized not only to adapt the Academy's programme flexibly to meet the demands of the participants - an aspect previously identified as a success factor in other building blocks – but also to evaluate the entire programme more effectively and derive lessons learned for potential future academies. After the Academy concluded, these findings were compiled and discussed in an internal workshop involving the implementing organisations. The lessons learned, along with other relevant materials, are shared on various platforms, particularly Agroecology TPP, to assist organisations in planning and implementing similar projects. Additionally, the project was presented in a public webinar upon completion. During this webinar, Academy participants had the opportunity to showcase their transformation initiatives, providing a valuable chance to expand their networks and enhance the sustainability of the Academy.