When Lian Pin Koh and Serge Wich first met it was to discuss ways they could work together for world conservation.  Koh is a conservation ecologist originally from Singapore, and Wich, born in Greece, is a primate biologist.  Both have had great success in their fields both academically and professionally.  In 2011 they meet up in Zurich, Switzerland to speak specifically about conservation issues facing the wildlife of Southeast Asia.  At that first meeting they came up with the idea of utilizing drones to monitor conservation related issues throughout Southeast Asia, creating ConservationDrones.org .

In application the idea seemed great to them.  They realized quickly thought that most of the conservation agencies they would be targeting simply could not afford to purchase and use commercially made drones.  They decided to start experimenting with creating their own low cost drones that would preform just as well as costly commercial drones.  In February of 2012 their first prototype, built for less than $2,000 was ready for testing in North Sumatra, Indonesia.  According to their website, “During four days in the field, the UAV flew over 30 missions, and collected thousands of high quality aerial images and video footage of forests and wildlife. That probably was the first time that amateur UAVs were ever used for conservation research in tropical rain forests.”

When their trial was done both gentlemen returned to their lives in Europe.  They posted some videos of the footage they captured along with the process they went through on YouTube.  Shortly thereafter they caught the attention of Mongabay, one of the most visited conservation and environmental science news platforms.  Once the non-profit news site ran an article on Koh’s and Wich’s efforts and emails from the press and other colleagues started rolling in.  Clearly they had started something that was bringing attention to some of the areas of the world most in need of conservation.

In August of 2013, under the fiscal sponsorship of Mongabay Org Corp, ConservationDrones.org was officially declared a non-profit organization.  They currently have a volunteer team of around nine people and a core crew consisting of Simon Wunderlin and Brenden as the Technical Directors, Keeyen Pang as the Asia Pacific Director, and Owen McAree as the Engineering Director.  ConservationDrones are now being used worldwide throughout Southeast Asia, parts of Africa, and even Greenland. 

Through Conservation Drones, under developed countries can find ways of building and utilizing drones to help in their conservation efforts.  The company provides all the tools needed to be able to build cost efficient drones along with the training required.  Their drones are capable of 30-60 minutes of autonomous flight over a range of 30-50km.  The drones are equipped with a camera that can capture high resolution photographs and videos.  The drones can also create geo-rectified 2D photo-mosaics and 3D digital surface models of any surveyed areas.  With the data collected by these drones conservationist can monitor wildlife, map aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as aid in the enforcement of protected areas.

With the aid of there small, but dedicated crew Koh and Wich are finding ways to allow underdeveloped and underfunded countries to protect their fragile ecosystems.  They have proven that conservation is possible within a limited budget, while still embracing the marvels of modern technology.

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