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Featured News

Species protection rises 6% on land and 4% in the seas in 2025

November 1, 2025

This year’s Half-Earth Day, hosted at the Field Museum of Chicago and anchored by actor Harrison Ford as special guest, saw the release of the second-annual Species Protection Report produced in partnership by the Map of Life and the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.

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News Bites

Hew Locke's Guyana: Climate Crisis

December 3, 2025

Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Claire participated in a conversation with Jemma Field, Associated Director of Research at the YCBA, about biodiversity, climate change, and colonialism in Guyana. Using the work of Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke, they discussed the new Global Biodiversity Alliance and the importance of equitable partnerships in conservation. (link to recording: https://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions-programs/hew-lockes-guyana-climate-crisis)

COP30

November 10, 2025

Belém, Brazil

Alex Killion was invited to COP30 in Belem, Brazil for a panel on Guyana's pathway to low carbon development and biodiversity conservation leadership. He was joined by President Ali of Guyana, other heads of state, and UN Assistant Secretary-General Michelle Muschett.

Applied Conservation Technology Congress

November 3, 2025

Hanoi, Vietnam

At ACT CON, Meredith gave a keynote presentation on turning complex science into actionable insights, as well as two invited talks, one on the integration of multimodal sensor data and the other an overview of the National Biodiversity Information Systems.

Half-Earth Day

October 29, 2025

Chicago, Illinois

The 2025 Half-Earth Day Celebration was a full day of workshops, speakers, and performances in support of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation’s Half-Earth Project. Walter ran a science workshop on “Supporting conservation outcomes through novel technologies for local biodiversity assessment”. We officially released the 2025 Species Protection Report, and Walter presented the report’s key findings.

Living Data Conference

October 21, 2025

Bogotá, Colombia

Several Center members presented at the Living Data conference: Jeremy presented a talk on his paper about North American birds’ geographic redistributions; Beth presented global SDMs and associated Expert Tools efforts; Alex presented on the National Biodiversity Information Systems; and Walter presented on species population EBVs.

IUCN World Conservation Congress

October 7, 2025

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Claire attended the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi to represent the Center at this global event only held once every four years. She met with key partners, including Esri, The Nature Conservancy, Rainforest Trust, and the Jane Goodall Institute.

Shubhi Sharma's "Habitat Shared" Exhibit Now Live at the Peabody

September 29, 2025

New Haven, Connecticut

BGC Center PhD Candidate Shubhi Sharma's artwork is featured in a new exhibit at the Yale Peabody Museum titled "Habitat Shared". This exhibit features several pieces of her original colored pencil artwork which highlight the ordinary and often overlooked yet profound inter-species relationships within human environments. Shubhi worked with Peabody team members Sydney Muchnik, Andrew Todd, and Andrew Putnam to put together the exhibit. It will be up through May 26.

New York Climate Week

September 21, 2025

New York City

Walter presented a panel about "Innovating for Nature: Technologies applied for biodiversity data in Brazil" at the World Climate and Biodiversity Summit and Claire and Walter hosted a session "Putting species on the map: More effective planetary decision making with Map of Life" as part of the Yale @ Climate Week series.

Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit

July 23, 2025

Georgetown, Guyana

Our team attended the Summit to officially launch the Global Biodiversity Alliance (GBA), as collaborators with the Guyanese government and founding members of the GBA. During the event, we signed an official MOU with the government of Guyana, Alex and Claire both presented, and we worked with a coalition of partners to announce a comprehensive national biodiversity monitoring initiative for the country.

Wildlabs Geospatial Cafe

July 17, 2025

Elise, the Biodiversity Data Coordinator, was invited to speak at the Wildlabs Geospatial Cafe where she presented on the Map of Life Regions Tool.

Esri User Conference

July 13, 2025

San Diego, California

Elise, a Biodiversity Data Coordinator at the Center, attended the Esri User Conference to learn the latest and greatest in map making. Her dashboard submission was "Species Protection Index: Country and Province Explorer", and it was featured in the virtual Map Gallery.

International Congress for Conservation Biology

June 15, 2025

Brisbane, Australia

Claire gave a workshop detailing the Map of Life initiative and associated projects and programs and Tz-Hsuan presented his paper "Hidden suboptimality of cost and area minimization in conservation prioritization model" for which he was a finalist in the Best Oral Talk category.

Women in Nature Network Networking Event

April 1, 2025

Veracruz, Mexico

Claire attended the Women in Nature Network (WiNN) bi-annual in-person networking event, which brings together members of WiNN’s global community from around the world. As the co-chair of WiNN’s board of directors, Claire led the event’s organizing committee and presented in the opening and closing ceremonies.

Oman Climate Week

February 21, 2025

Muscat, Oman

Alex and Claire were invited by the Chairman of the Oman Environment Authority (OEA) to attend Oman Climate Week, where they participated in the conference sessions and conducted workshops with leadership and staff of the OEA.

BioSpace25 Conference

February 10, 2025

Frascati, Italy

Center PhD Candidate Shubhi Sharma presented her work investigating the use of machine learning models for improving species distribution model estimates for data-deficient species at the BioSpace25 conference.

Featured News

Species protection rises 6% on land and 4% in the seas in 2025

News Bites

Hew Locke's Guyana: Climate Crisis

COP30

Applied Conservation Technology Congress

Half-Earth Day

Living Data Conference

IUCN World Conservation Congress

Shubhi Sharma's "Habitat Shared" Exhibit Now Live at the Peabody

New York Climate Week

Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit

Wildlabs Geospatial Cafe

Esri User Conference

International Congress for Conservation Biology

Women in Nature Network Networking Event

Oman Climate Week

BioSpace25 Conference

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