Since 1970, the world has seen an average loss of 73% in mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibian populations. Climate change, water stress, and resource depletion only accelerate stress on our natural environment. 55% of global GDP (valued to $58 trillion) is at widespread risk due to this decline in the environment without immediate action.
For over 20 years, we have built tools and technologies that will help partners, NGOs, governments and academics around the world deal with the loss of nature and biodiversity. And today we are announcing three new efforts to accelerate the conservation and recovery of the natural environment in some of the most important habitats, ecosystems and communities.
Google for Startups Accelerator: AI for Nature and Climate
It is launching its first accelerator focused on startups to use technology to protect, manage and restore nature. The World Economic Forum has identified biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as global risks over the next decade. Mitigating this risk requires advances in data collection, insights, modeling and decision-making capabilities. That’s why we support the best startups in the world to target this issue. Google for Startups Accelerator: AI for Nature and Climate combines one-to-one and group learning sessions to welcome startups in the Americas, including mentoring and technical support from Google engineers and experts, and offers 10 weeks of virtual programming. The application will open from March 3, 2025 to March 31, 2025, and the program will begin in May 2025. For more information on how to apply, please visit our website.
AI for Nature and Climate: A New Grant Fund for Nonprofits
Google.org has provided ICS $3 million to launch a public call to subsidize grants to support AI-enabled solutions from ICS’s selected Brazilian nonprofits and research centres. Google.org’s $3 million funding supports organizations that leverage AI in three areas:
Reversal of biodiversity loss: This includes solutions that support the global “30×30” effort to protect 30% of the Earth’s land and oceans by 2030 for biodiversity conservation and the creation of protected areas. Social biodiversity. Regenerative Agriculture: This includes activities that support regenerative and resilient agriculture, especially for smallholder farmers.
You can find more information on funding and these areas of interest on this website.
Species Net: A new open source AI model for wildlife conservation
It also announces an open source release of Species Net, an AI model designed to identify animal species by analyzing photos from camera traps. Since 2019, thousands of wildlife biologists have used the seed net via a Google cloud-based tool called Wildlife Insights to streamline biodiversity surveillance and inform conservation decisions. The release of AI models for species will enable tool developers, academics and biodiversity-related startups to expand their surveillance of biodiversity in natural regions.
Protecting nature and biodiversity is important to tackling climate change and we look forward to supporting startups focused on this challenge.
