While Dr Reid and Professor Castka acknowledge the sensitivities accompanying this level of transparency, they believe it can also deliver significant benefits.
“Compliance standards create a heavy load for farmers,” Professor Castka says. “Remote sensing automates this, so it isn’t taking them away from what they want to be doing.”
In addition to efficiency gains, Dr Reid highlights how land managers could receive timely data regarding their productivity and environmental impacts. “It will also allow land managers who are truly regenerative to stand out, becoming examples that others can learn from.” He says the response from industry has in most cases been positive and adds that the leaders in this space will gain a powerful marketing tool, for use both here and internationally, for sustainable products.
Dr Reid is also co-lead of Eco-index, a research programme funded by the New Zealand Biological Heritage National Science Challenge, and hosted at the University of Waikato, that measures biodiversity health and investment in Aotearoa. He says substantial private investment in environmental sensing is happening internationally, and that particular interest has been shown in the environmental insights and wisdom traditions held by Māori.
The researchers recognise the privacy concerns accompanying the evolution of this technology, however they hope the increased transparency will encourage more aspirational goals for Aotearoa’s biodiversity.
“It’s not enough to preserve what we have now for the next generation,” Professor Castka says, “It’s about making it better.”
Published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, the research paper was funded by the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge.
