Elevator Pitch
Our planet is undoubtedly hurting and our day-to-day choices are impacting it in new and unforeseen ways. However, nature presents itself as a dynamic & connected challenge. In this talk, I’ll give a snapshot of how we’re tackling our understanding of impact at The Nature Conservancy using graphs.
Description
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy has a global team of 400+ scientists that are helping drive our understanding of how nature’s resources like water, land and air interact with society, and vice versa. When we pick our actions and efforts to conserve a piece of land or a patch on the ocean, the ecological impacts are usually scientifically clear and well stated. However, more often than not, preserving nature’s resources can impact more than just the environment - take for instance the task of protecting land. Land provides food, food feeds people, industries and infrastructure and more. Even the interconnectedness of land and water make nature a complex entity of change! We need a better way to understand and drive decisions for conservation impact!
Helping nature do nature faster
While nature always works, it takes time. For instance, we know reforestation helps restore our water systems in a sustainable way! However, it can be years before we are able to see the proof of the impact. We need technology and tools to speed up our understanding and confidence in our strategies. We need to engage more regional and relevant stakeholders that can push the sucess as well as derisk the execution of such strategies. ## Telling stories & making a case for impact With the power of graphs, we can better understand the connectedness of people and nature’s resources. By leaning on patterns for “detecting risk” & “recommending actions”, we can kickstart some innovative and highly relevant stories of impact!
Notes
I’m currently the Sr Advisor of The Nature Conservancy and also founder of a graph-based enterprise suite of solutions at SCAD.ai. I’ve been leading the charge on AI-centric innovations for Nature.org and have been engaging with ventures that bring in impact-analysis.
I’ve built 5+ knowledge graphs with SCAD and are currently building a graph-based chatbot for strategic decision making and impact analysis by leveraging Neo4J. (adaptrack.com)