With the increasing public interest in artificial intelligence (AI), there is also increasing interest in learning about the benefits that AI can deliver to society. This book focuses on research advances in AI that benefit the conservation of wildlife, forests, coral reefs, rivers, and other natural resources. It presents how the joint efforts of researchers in computer science, ecology, economics, and psychology help address the goals of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Written at a level accessible to conservation professionals and AI researchers, the book offers both an overview of the field and an in-depth view of how AI is being used to understand patterns in wildlife poaching and enhance patrol efforts in response, covering research advances, field tests and real-world deployments. The book also features efforts in other major conservation directions, including protecting natural resources, ecosystem monitoring, and bio-invasion management through the use of game theory, machine learning, and optimization.

'No question - we need to transform how we monitor, model, and ultimately manage Earth’s natural resources. Artificial intelligence can accelerate that transition but requires a new community of AI inventors and conservation scientists working together. This book represents a gathering of the world’s top minds in AI and conservation jointly building the future building blocks of a conservation revolution. Fascinating, future-making insights!'

Lucas Joppa - Chief Environmental Officer, Microsoft

'While we hear more about artificial intelligence in the news each day, most conservation professionals have only a vague understanding of what this technological revolution may mean for our work. Artificial Intelligence and Conservation sheds light on the subject, with a particular focus on combating wildlife crime, supplemented by other applications including fire management, invasive species response, and harnessing citizen science. An important and timely resource.'

Thomas Brooks - Chief Scientist, International Union for Conservation of Nature

'The book Artificial Intelligence and Conservation brings together, for the first time, examples of computational research that address problems in conservation. The contributors articulate the challenges of using artificial intelligence to solve biodiversity conservation problems, as well as the urgency of the necessity to do so. It is a sweeping exposition, ranging from using game theory to fight poaching, to optimizing decisions through Markov modeling to manage invasive species. The collection showcases how rigorous computational research can make an impact helping save our planet’s wildlife. The readers will not only discover interesting computational problems and solutions, but will be inspired to work in this unique application of artificial intelligence and, I hope, will solve the many pressing open problems posed by the authors.'

Tanya Berger-Wolf - University of Illinois, Chicago