Transforming Biodiversity Monitoring Through Nature Tech & Cross-Sector Partnerships
Project photo: Scottish Highlands
Biodiversity is a cornerstone of our ecosystems, influencing everything from food production to climate stability. It is a vital part of a larger web of interconnected environmental factors—such as air quality, soil health, and water systems—that support and sustain life. To protect the natural world, it’s essential that we monitor biodiversity—tracking species diversity, habitat changes, and other critical ecosystem health indicators.
Traditionally, biodiversity monitoring has relied on manual, labor-intensive fieldwork. However, as the need for real-time, scalable data grows, technology has the potential to transform how we study nature. AI, remote sensing, and mobile apps are revolutionizing biodiversity tracking, making data collection faster, more efficient, and more comprehensive than ever before.
But technology alone isn't enough. To truly scale these innovations, strong collaboration between key stakeholders—such as tech providers, project developers, and investors—is essential. Misaligned priorities, differing timelines, and communication gaps between these groups can create barriers to success. So, how do organizations identify the right partners? What does a truly collaborative approach to biodiversity monitoring look like?
To explore these questions, the Nature Tech Collective examined a real-world case study from the rugged Scottish Highlands, featuring key project representatives: a nature tech provider, project developer, and investor. This project offers a practical blueprint for fostering effective partnerships in nature tech, and demonstrates how digital tools and AI can make biodiversity monitoring more scalable, cost-effective, and scientifically robust.
Watch the playback
This content was inspired by a Nature Tech Collective (NTC Now) session with Dr. Max Bodmer of rePLANET, Sylvain Vaquer of Mozaic Earth, and Helge Hansen of Foresight Group.
For a deeper dive, watch the key highlights from this session below:
The need to assess investment impact on nature
Foresight Group is a leading investment firm focused on creating positive environmental impact. With a £300 million natural capital portfolio, the company seeks to generate financial returns while enhancing biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem resilience.
Investment firms like Foresight need to deliver transparent reporting to their shareholders, who want to see clear, measurable impacts from their contributions. To deliver this information, investors require precise and regular biodiversity data, yet traditional tools often lack the detail needed to measure biodiversity changes at scale.
To address this, Foresight partnered with rePLANET, a company that specializes in large-scale nature restoration and innovative biodiversity monitoring. Together, they set out to establish a biodiversity baseline for a 2,500-hectare estate in the Scottish Highlands.
This baseline would capture key data on species, populations, and local ecosystem health, providing Foresight with a reference point for accurately tracking the impact of their investment and informing land management choices over time.
The challenge: Assessing impact while reducing biodiversity monitoring costs
Biodiversity monitoring is traditionally costly, and this financial burden often discourages organizations from implementing the necessary measures. To overcome this, rePLANET collaborated with Mozaic Earth to develop a monitoring strategy that balances cost efficiency with scientific rigor.
Mozaic Earth blends cutting-edge technology with community-driven data collection to make site-level biodiversity data more affordable, accessible, and actionable.
The company’s platform brings stakeholders together in key ways:
On-site data collectors: Using a user-friendly mobile app, individuals on the ground can collect precise, geo-tagged images and data from natural sites. They can also manage and position sensors and traps accurately, through the same app.
Ecologists and specialists: The data collected on-site is remotely analyzed by top ecologists and specialists, ensuring scientific rigor without the need for extensive on-site visits. Digital tools make the analysis faster and more efficient than traditional methods.
Actionable insights for decision-makers: Once the complex biodiversity data is analyzed, Mozaic Earth simplifies the information into clear, digestible insights. These insights are presented in user-friendly dashboards that help clients make informed decisions without needing to be biodiversity experts themselves.
Implementing Mozaic Earth’s nature tech
Step 1: Goal setting & stakeholder alignment
The project began with a meticulous planning phase where Foresight Group, rePLANET, and Mozaic Earth aligned on the overall monitoring goals of the project.
The team carefully selected metrics that could provide a holistic view of ecosystem health, moving beyond simple species counting to understanding intricate ecological interactions and the key metrics needed to monitor the Scottish site.
Key project steps and objectives included:
Establishing a clear ecological monitoring framework
Defining precise biodiversity metrics:
Assessing habitat structures using adapted DEFRA methodology, typically applied in England.
Assessing plant diversity
Tracking breeding birds populations using bioacoustic devices (Bioacoustic devices are specialized tools used to record and analyze sounds in natural environments, typically to monitor wildlife. )
Pollinator and insect activity monitoring
Establishing clear ecological monitoring goals that were also aligned with Foresight Group's investment strategy
Step 2: Tech-driven data collection
The team began with a hands-on approach, conducting on-site biodiversity surveys to ensure the data collection process was thorough and aligned with the project’s goals.
To complement fieldwork, a high-resolution drone survey captured an aerial view of the site.
As data collection evolved, advanced technology played a pivotal role, transforming the fieldwork into a tech-driven effort. Researchers became ecological detectives, using smartphones, specialized equipment, and drones to create a rich, dynamic portrait of the landscape
Deploying Mozaic Earth's mobile app for on-site surveys
Conducting high-resolution drone mapping
Implementing bioacoustic monitoring devices
Establishing systematic sampling plots
Using specialized trapping methods for insect diversity
Step 3: Interpreting the data
Step 3 merged technological innovation with human expertise, as AI algorithms processed the collected data remotely. Specialists cross-referenced field observations with drone imagery, applying advanced methodologies to ensure ecological nuances were captured and interpreted accurately.
Interpretation during this phase involved:
Cross-referencing field observations with drone imagery
Applying the Wallacea Trust methodology for biodiversity quantification
Analyzing soil and biological samples
Verifying data through multiple computational and manual techniques
Step 4: Delivering actionable & clear insights for decision-making
In the final phase, complex ecological data was transformed into clear, actionable insights that directly informed Foresight’s investment and land-management strategies.
Outputs from this phase included:
Comprehensive Biodiversity Report: rePLANET provided a thorough report establishing a "T0 pre-intervention baseline" of biodiversity. This baseline assessed five key groups (species, habitats, etc.), offering a reference point for future comparisons to measure the impact of Foresight’s interventions and track biodiversity improvements over time.
User-Friendly Dashboard: The team developed an intuitive, easy-to-navigate dashboard that displayed data on 112 plant species and 38 bird species across nine habitats. The dashboard included a biodiversity index, narrative explanations, and access to raw data, ensuring transparency and flexibility for future updates and adjustments.
Mozaic Earth’s platform proved to be an essential tool for helping to visualize habitat maps and survey data. Its dynamic, interactive interface made complex ecological data accessible to all stakeholders, even those without specialized knowledge in habitat mapping.
Project Takeaways: Close collaboration & nature tech can cost-effectively scale biodiversity tracking projects
This case study from the Scottish Highlands highlights the power of collaboration, innovation, and cost-effective solutions in advancing biodiversity monitoring. Unlike traditional projects where work happens in isolation until the final report, this project kept the investor (Foresight) actively engaged throughout, making it a truly collaborative effort. With more than 60 contributors involved, the project underscores the importance of collective expertise in bridging gaps between technology, ecology, and investment impact.
The success of this project relied upon ongoing, close-knit collaboration between stakeholders: Regular re-evaluation, effective communication, and a willingness to compromise at various stages were vital to overcoming challenges.
Nature tech, as shown in this case, can provide essential support in helping to bring costs down: By decoupling data collection from interpretation and leveraging remote sensing, Mozaic Earth reduced monitoring costs by 30-50%, making large-scale biodiversity tracking more feasible and accessible.
This case study serves as a beacon for the future of biodiversity monitoring, where collaboration between diverse sectors, supported by advanced technologies, opens new doors for scalable, cost-effective solutions. The journey from traditional methods to tech-enhanced monitoring marks an essential shift that will shape how we track, protect, and restore biodiversity in the future.
