Presentation short abstract

Digital Sequence Information technology enables the extraction of plant genetic data without the need to access physical resources. Existing laws on access and benefit sharing are unprepared, and global and national law-making processes are power fields entrenched in coloniality.

Presentation long abstract

Digital Sequence Information (DSI) has become one of the most contentious elements of contemporary biodiversity governance, challenging legal frameworks designed for the exchange of physical plant genetic resources (‘PGR’). While the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol assert that States exercise sovereignty over tangible biological materials, DSI enables the access, use, and commodification of genetic information through intellectual property, even without any physical transfer of PGR. This renders existing Access and Benefit-Sharing mechanisms increasingly ineffective. Efforts to regulate DSI are further complicated by a ‘regime complex’ of overlapping treaties and shifting negotiating forums.

Such fragmentation is also mirrored in the national governance of PGR. In India, the Biological Diversity Act operates alongside overlapping agricultural, scientific, and trade rules. Similarly, in Bolivia, laws recognising the rights of Mother Earth sit uneasily alongside conflicting regulations that prioritise trade and commercial interests, making effective implementation difficult. A political ecology lens reveals that DSI governance is not merely a technical challenge, but a continuation of colonial and neoliberal power hierarchies mediated through biotechnology, intellectual property and global market logics. Although India and Bolivia formally articulate sovereignist, postcolonial, and farmers' rights-centred approaches, both remain embedded in colonial legal architectures where technologically and economically powerful actors continue to dominate law-making spaces.

Historically, the shift from viewing plant genetic resources as the “common heritage of humankind” to national sovereignty was intended to redistribute control. This presentation questions the possibilities for regulatory coherence in a system shaped by technological asymmetries and enduring coloniality.

Presentation short abstract

Global biodiversity datasets are increasingly being used to characterize species distribution in Indigenous Peoples' Lands. Drawing on a case study in Bolivia, I show how such data-driven analyses can be affected by biases, and discuss the implications for the local communities in the studied areas.

Presentation long abstract

Emerging technologies and databanks enable easier access to biological data. However, these data are known to contain substantial biases, reflecting human patterns that go beyond technological limitations. Despite these well-known biases, several studies have used global biodiversity databases to characterize species distribution across Indigenous Peoples’ Lands.

I will demonstrate the influence of data biases on spatial biodiversity characterizations and discuss the implications for local communities. Therefore, I will present analyses of tree-species-richness distribution in Bolivia that considerably differ when using different databases. I relate these observations to spatial and taxonomic biases in the databases, and to the data’s institutional provenance.

I will discuss my findings along two lines. Firstly, the identified biases are known to relate to human processes. However, the datasets commonly do not provide clear information about the contexts of the data collection procedures. Therefore, analyses derived from these sources may unwittingly reflect and reproduce long-standing injustices.

Secondly, global biodiversity datasets are based on a Western paradigm of managing global resources, disregarding alternative understandings of human-nature relationships. Critically, with all simplifications required to merge data from different sources, the information provided by the datasets does not align with Indigenous holistic conceptions of the environment. The deep, complex knowledge systems underpinning Indigenous Peoples’ relations with nature are therefore disregarded and potentially obscured.

Through these discussions, I explore the socio-ecological and ethical implications of a broader integration of data-driven methods into conservation practice. The reflections are applicable to other evolving data-driven conservation approaches, highlighting their relevance for decision-making.

Presentation short abstract

This contribution argues that new biobanking practices and genetic technologies in European zoos have the potential to reveal institutional and colonial histories, and furthermore demonstrates how these continue to form the data infrastructure upon which contemporary zoo conservation is based.

Presentation long abstract

This contribution considers zoo biobanking of animal tissues and genetic data as a conservation technology, and argues that tracing animal’s genetic “origins” offers openings into zoo’s institutional and colonial histories. It focuses on the EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) biobank, which brings together samples from a network of accredited zoos into freezers distributed over four hubs. For conservationists and researchers, the biobank makes available novel genetic information that can be used to inform zoo-based conservation decisions. By for example basing breeding recommendations on the genetic diversity of zoo animals, the biobank is hoped to contribute to keeping threatened species “genetically viable” outside zoo walls. In practice, genetic samples from the biobank especially contribute to determining the “provenance” or “origin” of so-called “founders”: animals that were captured in the wild and then transported to the zoo. Tracing the geographic and genetic origins of founders however not only offers genetic insights: it invites engagement with the circumstances under which animals were brought to zoos, and leads researchers to sample ancestors of zoo animals in natural history collections. In doing so, these genetic methods have the potential to lay bare the institutional and colonial histories of zoos: the colonial networks that allowed them to acquire animals in the wild, and their exchange with natural history museums. I contend that these new biobanking practices and sequencing technologies not only can reveal these histories, but demonstrates how they continue to form the data infrastructure upon which contemporary zoo conservation practices are based.

Presentation short abstract

Resource inequalities and power dynamics influence if and how different actors can use EO data. Increased use of EO data may perpetuate disempowerment of local communities through exclusion of alternative information sources, and loss of control over data and the resulting narratives and decisions.

Presentation long abstract

The rapid adoption of earth observation data in the last decade has been met with minimal consideration of how access to and use of this data intersects with underlying power dynamics. In the Just Earth Observation for Conservation project, we are exploring what EO data is being used, how, and by whom in the Mount Kenya Landscape; the challenges local actors have experienced in working with EO data; and how they are overcoming them. We have found financial, resource, and capacity inequalities hinder the ability of some organisations in the landscape to use EO to its full potential; and communities living in the landscape may have limited participation or control over the collection, ownership, and application of EO data. There is a clear pattern where research and conservation activities drawing on the most sophisticated technology and data are led by international actors, with agendas driven by external priorities, not necessarily local, practical needs. As a consequence, the increased use of EO data may be perpetuating the disempowerment of locals in the name of conservation, through exclusion or devaluing of alternative data and ways of knowing, and loss of control over data and the resulting narratives and decisions. We are looking to work with local actors toco-develop better ways of working with and governing EO data; including facilitating collaboration across landscapes and up and down data value chains, to develop data products which are fit for purpose, accessible, and equitable, and are used alongside other forms of data.

Presentation short abstract

We report preliminary insights on the types of strategies that experts in Grassroots Transformative Initiatives (GTI) reveal about GTI's engagement with digitalisation. Connecting with E. O. Wright's strategic logics of transformation, we articulate how relationality guides decision of engagement.

Presentation long abstract

Around the world, Grassroots Transformative Initiatives (GTI) defending biocultural diversity face a dilemma: Do they engage with digitalisation, and thus gain visibility and potentially become more effective in particular purposes (e.g., communication, environmental monitoring, outreach)? Or opposingly, do they refrain from digitalisation, and thus avoid costs, technical challenges, exposure to data theft and other political and personal risks?

A prevalent assumption is that these GTI, which occasionally occur in marginalized areas and involve vulnerable populations, lack technical competence, digital access, or the wish to engage with digital technologies. However, in the past, social movements seeking socioecological transformation have been successful in mobilising resources for social change. Current scholarship has not fully addressed to what extent this might also be happening with digitalisation. This is precisely the focus of the DIVERSE project (https://www.upf.edu/web/diverse).

Currently, we are exploring the types of strategies that experts in GTI identify in the way such GTI engage with digitalisation. We hypothesize that relationality, rather than enhanced performance, guides decisions on engagement, both when deciding the extent of such an engagement, and regarding the type of concrete digital practices that are implemented or that are excluded.

To explore this notion we conducted interviews with experts in GTI from several parts of the world identified through salient literature on pluriversal transformations. Their responses allow us to articulate a framework connecting dimensions of relationality (care, community and connection), with Erin Olin Wright’s (2010) strategic logics of transformation (ruptural, interstitial, symbiotic).

Presentation short abstract

Centering a controversy over iNaturalist’s partnership with Google generative AI, we employ discourse analysis and interviews to understand how emerging technologies are remaking environmental science communities while recalibrating ecological labor, participation, and expertise.

Presentation long abstract

In June 2025, a seemingly innocuous announcement – that the citizen science app iNaturalist would partner with Google’s generative AI accelerator to improve species identification and user experience – ignited widespread backlash. A recent special issue in Big Data & Society on Artificial Intelligence controversies suggests such moments are windows into understanding shifting relations between technoscience, society and democracy. Here, we leverage insights from critical data studies and political ecology to understand how the iNat outcry, as well as broader debates in the biodiversity data community about AI and big tech investment and control of algorithms and data, illuminate the shifting terrain of digital technologies and environmental governance. We draw on a discourse analysis of comment threads on iNaturalist, bluesky and Reddit as well as interviews with 34 individuals on four continents engaged in the production and curation of global biodiversity data. Preliminary analysis suggests that objections about the energy use, data profiteering, lack of user autonomy to opt-out, and the erosion of trust among platform staff and users reveal core motivations and values of open science participants. At the same time, we see cautious optimism about applications to improve species identification, educate policy-makers, secure funding, and apply biodiversity information across diverse domains, from drug development to wildlife crime. By analyzing these perspectives, we show how particular technologies – from open-access databases and citizen science apps to blockchain ledgers and LLMs – facilitate or block the formation and maintenance of environmental science communities while recalibrating ecological labor, participation, and expertise.

Presentation short abstract

Public university infrastructures democratize spatial data access through hybrid models. CIMSUR’s Planet catalog and community drones exemplify how institutional licenses and open platforms can reshape conservation power relations amid growing criminal appropriation of aerial technologies.

Presentation long abstract

This presentation examines two complementary initiatives from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) exploring how public universities can transform conservation power relations through hybrid institutional-open infrastructures for environmental data. First, the Planet Satellite Image Catalog developed by UIFS-CIMSUR-UNAM democratizes access to high-resolution Earth observation imagery covering Chiapas, Central America, and the Caribbean. Through UNAM's Campus license, the catalog serves university members, external students with institutional advisors, and collaborators with co-authors, offering PlanetScope (3m) and SkySat (50cm) imagery via interactive dashboards requiring no GIS expertise. Complementing institutional access, UIFS develops open-access visualizations through Planet Stories (Creative Commons licenses), enabling community-based actors to analyze environmental transformations without technical or institutional barriers, illustrating how universities can broker access to commercial spatial data for grassroots governance. Second, community drone experiences reveal critical challenges as organized crime appropriates these technologies across Latin America. Through teaching in Chiapas (2023-2025) and the Latin American Network for Community Use of Drones (Red LatinDron), I document how regulatory frameworks and criminal surveillance transform drones from curiosity tools into control symbols, requiring new pedagogical approaches for contested territories. Both cases illustrate Pritchard et al.'s (2022) environmental data justice framework—data composition, control, access, processing, use, consequences—and Bennett et al.'s (2022) critical remote-sensing practices—exposing injustices, engaging situated knowledges, empowering marginalized actors. The presentation explores public university infrastructures' potential to challenge conservation power dynamics through hybrid models balancing institutional commitments with open dissemination, while highlighting urgent needs to strengthen these capacities against emerging threats to legitimate community environmental monitoring.

Presentation short abstract

Participatory monitoring is promoted in community-based conservation as an inclusive way to generate environmental information from the ground up. Yet the increasing use of surveillance technologies like camera traps risks turning monitoring into enforcement and reshaping local power relations.

Presentation long abstract

Participatory monitoring is promoted in community-based conservation as an inclusive way to generate environmental information from the ground up. Yet in Ghana’s Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs), monitoring is often enacted less as knowledge generation and more as surveillance and enforcement. Emergent technologies such as camera traps, GPS devices and digital data systems intensify this shift, creating new forms of authority, deterrence and disciplinary power.

Monitoring teams occupy a hybrid position between community member and ranger, authorised to observe, report and sanction peers. Surveillance technologies strengthen this position not only through technical capacity but through affective effects: rumours, anticipation of being watched and fear of punishment shape behaviour even in the absence of direct observation. Monitoring in CBC produces environmental subjects not primarily through stewardship or participation, but through sovereign modes of environmentality rooted in deterrence and control.

These dynamics are embedded in broader histories of conservation in Ghana, where forests have long been managed through policing. Emergent technologies risk presenting enforcement as neutral data collection, reproducing exclusionary governance logics in ostensibly participatory contexts. A focus on surveillance shows that technologies do not simply monitor environments but actively reconfigure governance, embedding enforcement logics within community relations and conservation practice.

Presentation short abstract

AI can enhance forest restoration through improved precision and scalability but also risks reinforcing bias and inequity. We propose a governance framework based on participatory knowledge integration, policy alignment, and polycentric governance to guide effective, responsible AI use.

Presentation long abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as a transformative tool for forest restoration, enhancing efficiency, precision, and scalability in pursuit of global sustainability goals. However, its integration also raises ethical, social, and ecological challenges that extend beyond technical design. AI systems rely on large, high-quality datasets, often struggle to adapt across diverse socio-ecological contexts, and may reinforce inequities by privileging certain knowledge systems or governance models. Whether AI strengthens or undermines restoration outcomes will depend on our governance capacity to manage these risks and ensure equitable benefit-sharing. This paper proposes a governance framework for AI-driven restoration built on three pillars: (1) participatory knowledge integration, embedding plural and traditional knowledge into AI design and use; (2) multi-scalar policy alignment, connecting international commitments with national and local priorities; and (3) polycentric governance, fostering distributed stewardship and equitable access to innovation across multiple centers of authority. Together, these pillars aim to guide researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in developing AI applications for ecosystem restoration. Recognizing that technologies are not neutral but reshape power dynamics, this framework underscores the need for ethical safeguards and inclusive governance to ensure that AI adoption enhances the legitimacy, transparency, and equitable benefit-sharing of global restoration efforts.