Wilderness International (WI) has a unique global mission:  Raising funds to purchase pieces of vulnerable ecosystems and placing them under its own permanent protection.  The 15-year old nonprofit – with bases in Germany, Peru and Canada – has pursued its mission with the help of unmanned aircraft for nearly a decade.  This year, though, the group decided to enhance its aerial surveillance and documentation capabilities by investing in a new UAV fleet – courtesy of the world’s leading drone supplier, DJI.

DJI has provided WI with three of its popular drone models, which vary in their sizes and capabilities:  the Mavic 3 Enterprise, Mavic 3 Multispectral, and the Mini 3 Pro.  The Mini 3 Pro is the smallest and quietest of the three drones.  It’s being used in Peru to uncover illegal activities by loggers and poachers that could threaten the ecosystem.

“Previously, you would have to hire a helicopter to do this work, but that is not only prohibitively expensive but it can also be heard from miles away,” says WI Forest Guardian Santiago Durand.  “So, the loggers can disappear out of sight before pictures are taken. Drones are cheaper, can be deployed spontaneously, and are much more unobtrusive.”

DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise has another function for WI:  Its enhanced camera and sensor capabilities allows the group to precisely document the status of specific parcels of an ecosystem of interest to donors.  The group’s investors want to know precisely how their funding is being used – and with what results.  And with WI’s donor base growing so fast, speed is also essential.

This larger and better equipped drone can inspect as much as 200- hectares of land in less than an hour, and can fly completely autonomously, without even a remote pilot, reducing manpower costs substantially.

Finally, there’s the Mavic 3 Multispectral, which is geared toward scientific investigations of biodiversity and the effects of climate change on the group’s conservation efforts.  The drone’s high-tech sensors can identify the spectral signature of a tree invisible to the human eye and to standard high-resolution zoom cameras.  WI is collecting data and using sophisticated AI-based software to identify the most biodiverse forest areas the group might purchase for conservation.  The drone can distinguish individual tree species and even the soil fertility and plant stress patterns that night affect their health over time.

WI is not the only conservation group deploying state-of-the-art DJI drones.  Ocean Alliance, which collects data on endangered whales and seeks to raise public awareness of their plight, utilizes DJI’s Inspire 2 drone to collect mucous samples from whales as they come up to the surface and exhale through their blow-holes. The mucous samples contain DNA, microbiomes, tissue particles, stress and pregnancy hormones, and other viruses that can be used to evaluate the state of a whale’s health.

DJI’s Inspire 2 drone – dubbed the “Snot Bot” – offers huge advantages over more traditional collection techniques.  In the past, Ocean Alliance was compelled to approach whales by boat and to deploy projectiles with sensor-laden suction cups that stuck to the whale’s body.  It was a dangerous, costly and inefficient process.that required experienced scientists sailing on multiple vessels to spend countless hours chasing whales using sonar and helicopters – all the while risking collision and injury to humans and whales alike.

In February 2022, Ocean Alliance experimented with the use of drones to drop its sensors from drones flying overhead.  Tagging via drone may still be useful for tracking whale migration, hunting and reproduction patterns.  But with the Snot Bot, the group can gather heretofore unavailable data on whale health and need not tag the mammals at all.