Digital Biodiversity Monitoring in El Salvador and Paraguay

With ecoacoustics and camera traps

Bosque

© Thomas Asbeck

In El Salvador and Paraguay, first steps towards a new and innovative approach for a robust monitoring of land use impacts on biodiversity are piloted.

The digital biodiversity monitoring is based on ecoacoustics, a long-term monitoring approach for habitat health, conservation, and ecosystem management. Sound recorders are used in the field to digitally sample the acoustic diversity in a repeated, transparent, and efficient way, finally computing acoustic index values.

These index values represent several species groups such as songbirds, insects and amphibians and are therefore a good indicator of overall biodiversity. Additionally, the monitoring approach includes the measurement of structural components of the landscape, such as tree dimensions and canopy cover. The sound recording combined with camera traps that record mammal and bird species as well as the structural attributes, allow to define baselines and a comprehensive detection of changes in biodiversity.

Such monitoring is key for impact investors and can be used to assess and report on the impacts of private forest landscape restoration (FLR) investments on biodiversity.