🌳 New $10 million competition launched for preserving rainforests

The registration is now open for teams interested in participating in the four-year global competition that calls on innovators to create technology capable of identifying and cataloging rainforest biodiversity and developing insights that may lead to a new bioeconomy through standing forests.

The knowledge of the full biodiversity must be unlocked so that private companies, corporations, governments, individuals, local communities, and indigenous people who have demonstrated a commitment to preserving the rainforests will be empowered to sustain rainforests rather than destroy them.

The Rainforest XPRIZE will reward teams that can develop effective new technology to capture the true biological diversity of rainforests and further layer additional data to show the value of protecting the natural resources within them.

“Amid our 25th anniversary as an organization, it is fitting that we add to our legacy by introducing a prize that will challenge the best and brightest to develop transformative technology to incentivize the preservation of rainforests worldwide, not only for our generation, but those to follow,” said XPRIZE CEO Anousheh Ansari in a statement.

The current methods for identifying and cataloging biodiversity — including in situ human-led studies, remote sensing by satellites or radar, or sophisticated spectroscopy — cannot operate to scale and gather the data necessary to understand the full ecosystem wealth of rainforests in sustainable ways.

This competition accelerates a new bioeconomy while also engaging indigenous and local communities as well as local academic institutions in developing the solution. And the Rainforest XPRIZE is a call-to-action to help save rainforests through the development and implementation of transformative, scalable, and affordable technology.

“Despite their importance in supporting life on Earth, rainforests are undervalued because we simply do not yet know everything that exists in this ancient ecosystem,” added Executive Director of the Rainforest XPRIZE Jyotika Virmani, Ph.D. “I’m excited to see the innovative technologies that will emerge from this competition and give us a better assessment of the incredible biodiversity. Our goal is for the Rainforest XPRIZE to provide new understanding and reveal the true potential of the standing forest, allowing local communities to lead the way for all of us to live in harmony with these magnificent rainforests.”

Read more at Pulse 2.0.