Conservation by Design: Technology & the Future of Wildlife Protection

From chalk marks on a hill to satellites in space, conservation has always been driven by innovation. Discover how ZSL scientists are creating and using technologies - high-tech and low-tech - to protect species, and what the next ‘grand design’ could mean for the future of wildlife.

From deep-sea surveys to machine learning, the presentations, panel discussions and Q&A at this event will showcase how novel and established technologies can improve our understanding of the natural world.

Hosted by Lizzie Daly, wildlife biologist, filmaker and presenter

Dr Chris Yesson, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Zoology, ZSL

Dr Chris Yesson is a senior research fellow and benthic ecologist. He studies how human activity affects seabed habitats around the world, from kelp forests and seagrass meadows in the UK to cold-water coral ecosystems in the Arctic. He works on conservation projects in places like Greenland, Sussex, and the Thames Estuary, combining field research with close collaboration with fishers and policymakers. Through this work, he’s helped support trawling bans, protect vulnerable marine habitats, and drive practical restoration efforts, such as kelp, seagrass, and oyster recovery. Chris uses a variety of monitoring techniques such as towed cameras, drones and environmental DNA, including developing a low-cost towed camera system for deep seabed surveys with the Deep & Cheap project.

Dr Stephen Long, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Institute of Zoology, ZSL

Dr Stephen Long's work aims to support global biodiversity monitoring and supports the co-existence between wildlife and people. Stephen's research gathers the data required to support evidence-based management marine resources. For example, using deep-sea cameras to explore unknown areas of the seafloor, identify vulnerable marine habitats and assess the impacts of fishing. Using social science approaches, he critically assesses the governance of fisheries and marine protected areas (MPAs) to inform the work of government, industry and NGOs.

Dr Robin Freeman, Lead of the Conservation AI Lab, Institute of Zoology, ZSL

Dr Robin Freeman is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Zoology, ZSL, where he leads the Conservation AI Lab, developing new approaches to predicting biodiversity change. His research focuses on understanding and predicting global biodiversity change using ecological data science, machine learning and AI. Robin has played a key role in the development and application of global biodiversity indicators, including the Living Planet Index, produced in partnership with WWF, which tracks trends in vertebrate populations worldwide.