The challenges faced by biome specialists around the world are countless, and when the environment is as vast and dense as that of a tropical forest, the difficulties can take on amplified proportions, such as the arduous task of collecting data from the highest branch of a 50-meter tall tree.
To overcome these constraints and advance the mapping of the entire ecosystem found in the central area of the planet, the XPrize Rainforest was launched as a global competition, now in its final phase.
“We still know very little about all the biodiversity on the planet. We have not yet fully familiarized ourselves with the forest inventory, and that is exactly what the XPrize Rainforest is doing: mapping to learn, and learning to protect,” said Pedro Hartung, executive director of the Alana Institute.
One of the most comprehensive global reports on biodiversity, Living Planet, published by WWF, pointed out in 2022 that over 40 years, an average of 69% of the world’s fauna had been lost. Many species have not even been named by science, as 80% of the estimated 10 million life forms on the planet have never been studied or recorded.
The challenge proposed by the competition is to accelerate the development of technological solutions to collect and catalog data about different tropical forest environments, enabling conservation strategies and sustainable development.
The final prize is $10 million, to be divided among the first-place winners, with $5 million for first place, $2 million for second, and $500,000 for third. The remaining $2.5 million will be divided into bonuses paid to competitors who advanced to the semifinals and finals.
According to Peter Houlihan, vice president of the XPrize Foundation for biodiversity and conservation, the accelerated rate of biodiversity loss and ecosystem services that humanity depends on has been a determining factor in the search for these solutions. “We cannot protect parts of the planet if we are not able to measure and monitor what is in it,” he pointed out.
Almost five years later, the six best solutions underwent the final test this July at the Rio Negro Sustainable Development Reserve, about 25 kilometers from Manaus.
Competitors
The finalist teams are the Brazilian Team, composed mainly of Brazilian scientists and researchers; Providence +, with representatives from Brazilian and Spanish universities and institutions; ETH BiodivX, registered as Swiss, but bringing together scientists from various parts of the world, including Brazilians; and the North American teams Map of Life, Welcome to the Jungle, and Limelight Rainforest, also with global expertise.
At this stage, each group had the opportunity to demonstrate the improvements made since the semifinals, held in Singapore in 2023. Until the announcement of the winners in November, during the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.