Participants listen during the opening panel discussion.
The Partnership for Action on Conservation Technology (PACT) 2019 was a workshop held on 12 June 2019 at Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, DC. Leaders in conservation technology from 16 non-governmental organizations and technology companies came together to accomplish three main goals: 1. Understand the landscape of conservation technology today in the conservation community; 2. Discuss future directions and needs for conservation technology; and 3. Identify challenges, such as resource limitations, that need to be addressed to enable conservation technology to achieve conservation goals. Over the course of the day, participants heard from a discussion panel of end-users of conservation technology; presented lightning talks on the technology work of their organizations; then worked in three sessions to refine the scope of needs for conservation technology now and in the coming years. The results of the workshop included new connections among organizations; lists and discussion of top needs; and discrete action items in six areas, to be advanced by participants in the coming weeks and months: 1. Conservation technology registry; 2. Conservation technology standards; 3. Social and legal challenges of conservation technology; 4. Sustainable funding for conservation technology; 5. Collective bargaining for conservation technology; and 6. PACT 2020.
As the previous Director in the Center for Conservation Innovation at Defenders, Jacob led CCI’s work at the intersection of science, technology, and policy to improve conservation outcomes, especially for threatened and endangered species.