This building block is centered on the use of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), including Siamese and Autoencoder architectures, to detect and identify individual jaguars based on unique features such as rosette patterns and morphology. These algorithms process camera-trap data efficiently, reducing the time required for analysis and providing critical insights for decision-making in conservation.

Dynamic risk maps, built using GIS and geospatial analysis, identify high-risk areas and guide resource allocation. This tool can be used for urban planning, disaster risk reduction, or managing natural resources like water or land.

The system combines data from drones, satellites, camera traps, and geospatial tools to create a comprehensive monitoring framework. This approach can be adapted for other environmental challenges, such as flood monitoring, by integrating relevant data sources specific to those contexts.

Modern Zoological gardens and aquariums worldwide provide unique opportunities by contributing expertise in animal care, species conservation, and public education, forming a strong foundation for modern conservation and scientific research. By working closely with these institutions and utilizing the data and insights they generate, the GAIA Initiative aims at bridging the gap between in-situ and ex-situ conservation efforts. Animals under human care can serve as valuable models for understanding species’ biology, behaviour, and responses to environmental changes. Furthermore, the controlled conditions of zoological gardens allow for the development and testing of advanced technologies, such as animal-borne sensors and AI systems, under more predictable and accessible settings before deployment in the wild.

Key focus areas of this building block include:

• Generating reference and training data for the development of the AI pipeline for the sensor data. By deploying the tags on vultures in captivity in a large aviary and recoding their behaviour simultaneously, we were able to create a paired dataset for the training of the AI.  With the trained AI there is no more need to observe the animals to detect relevant behaviour, e.g. feeding; the AI can very reliably predict behaviour from the sensor data giving us insights in the behaviour of the target animals throughout their life.
• Education and public engagement: Zoo Berlin integrates GAIA’s findings into its educational programs and collaborates in media relations and public outreach, fostering public awareness and participation in biodiversity conservation and technological innovations. Visitors are introduced to cutting-edge tools and their impact on wildlife conservation.

The forestry sector is suffering from corruption and is limiting benefits for local and Indigenous communities. Our solution allows local communities to tackle forest illegalities and land rights violations and at the same time to secure their land rights and economic rights over forest resources by monitoring and protecting their territory, reinforcing sustainable development and autonomy.  Data collected through the tool also supports judicial or non-judicial cases when local and indigenous communities suffer human rights abuses. 

Having data collected and analysed through a digital tool is an innovation, although to foster changes and ensure local communities and Indigenous people's protection and sustainable lifestyle the data is used for law enforcement and advocacy purposes. To this end, strong local, national and international advocacy networks are needed to take action against reported abuses and to achieve policy changes. By enabling information to be shared between users and opening up data to the general public, the tool facilitates collaborative working. 

Our solution is based on a digital tool whose goal is to collect and facilitate the analyse of the data sent by community observers and our partners. This tool's efficiency relies on the fact that it is digital, easy to use and low costs for local and Indigenous communities. It enables us to work with hard-to-reach areas around the world, to have quantitative data to support national and international advocacy and to get supporting evidence for legal cases. The adaptability of our solution also lies in the fact that it can be used to monitor a variety of issues (illegal logging - artisanal or industrial, mining, carbon market projects' impact, GBV, etc.), in a variety of contexts.  

The evidence is building that granting Indigenous peoples and other local communities' control over their territories improves forest protection. This is because they are directly invested in the survival of forests and want to ensure that future generations can continue to live and thrive in them. Yet a lot of development and environmental and climate-related programs are not created in collaboration with the people who will be impacted by them. Therefore, our solution arose from the challenges that grassroots organisations and Indigenous and local communities brought to our attention. Those communities are the ones living all the forests illegalities and land tenure violations therefore by directly tackling their challenge it ensures the solution to be genuine and efficient. Working with them directly helps us to better understand the contexts they are facing and adapt the tool in consequence. 

Contour Enviro Group further coordinate and create job opportunities for the MSMEs that have gone through the training programme so that they may practice their acquired skills. All of our MSMEs have acquired work since the inception of the programme and this has brought some sustainability on the model.

As mentioned in the previous sections, this programme is meant to achieve the following: “to develop, empower, support and professionalize Conservation MSMEs in the conservation sector in South Africa”. 

The programme has trained over 20 MSMEs and created over 400 jobs annually since 2022 based on this programme. This programme is the main building block for the Grasshopper Project Management Tool as it was realised that the MSMEs need some support and a consolidation of their project management efforts, access to basic financial tools such as quoting and invoicing. Furthermore, to manage their assets etc.