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Despite decades of conservation policy, Europe is still seeing widespread biodiversity decline. NATURE-FIRST’s partners set out to change that. Their goal was to make biodiversity monitoring faster, smarter and more predictive, using digital innovation and real-time intelligence, and to create tools designed for practical use by scientists, rangers and conservation agencies tasked with wildlife protection.
Led by Sensing Clues – a conservation research non-profit in the Netherlands – the project united 12 partners from research, technology, field operations and business development. They focused on four protected areas facing mounting pressure from land use change, climate pressure and human-wildlife conflict. These were: Spain’s Ancares-Courel reserve, the Danube Delta and Maramures in Romania and Ukraine, and Bulgaria’s Stara Planina mountains.
A practical approach
NATURE-FIRST’s solutions were built for the field, not the lab, with a three-year timeline demanding swift action. “We’re not an academic consortium,” explains Jan-Kees Schakel, director of Sensing Clues. “We wanted real-world solutions up and running as quickly as possible.”
From the outset, an iterative, agile approach was adopted. Stakeholders, including ecologists, rangers and data scientists, worked together to define needs, test prototypes and refine tools.
The objective was to create early warning systems to detect trends before problems arose. The team developed tools including mobile reporting apps, real-time monitoring systems, a wildlife ‘crime scene investigation kit’ and an integrated data platform to help conservation professionals intervene before ecosystems reach critical tipping points.
Another of NATURE-FIRST’s standout achievements was the development of digital twins – data-driven models that simulate real-world ecosystems and help predict behaviours. These included a sturgeon model that forecasts behaviour based on environmental data, a Human-Bear Conflict Radar that generates risk forecasts, and a Crane Migration Radar that predicts migratory shifts. Integrated into the Sensing Clues platform, these tools consolidate diverse data into a single actionable resource.
Connecting conservation biology with wildlife crime prevention, the project addressed challenges such as poaching, wildlife crime and human-wildlife conflict.
Collaboration between ecologists, technologists and wildlife crime investigators led to new insights, such as the decision to provide rangers with training in wildlife forensics. “They’re often the first responders at wildlife crime scenes,” says Schakel. “Equipped with basic forensic kits, they can secure critical evidence for investigations.”
A fully operational platform
At the heart of NATURE-FIRST is its data integration platform designed for flexibility and speed. Capable of ingesting sensor feeds, camera trap images, satellite imagery and historical records, the system allows users to create reports, analytics and alerts tailored to their needs.
The Sensing Clues portal is market-ready and offers a freemium subscription model, making the tools accessible even to low-budget conservation teams. Unlike many research projects that struggle to scale, NATURE-FIRST integrated market testing from an early stage. The result is a system with proven demand and operational success.
“This is not a prototype,” notes Schakel. “It’s fully operational and already in use.” The work supports the delivery of ambitious environmental policies such as the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 – a core part of the European Green Deal – which aims to expand nature conservation and restoration efforts across Europe.
In the Danube Delta, the sturgeon model is now used operationally by Romanian scientists, informed by data on river morphology and water levels. Meanwhile, in the Ukrainian Carpathians and Polissya, WWF teams are tracking large carnivores such as bears with new precision, using insights from the platform to reshape their conservation strategies.
Conservation for the future
NATURE-FIRST delivered a fully functioning system that enables conservation teams to move faster, predict better and act before some habitats and species disappear altogether. Results and future plans were shared at the project’s final conference in June, showcasing insights on how data-driven foresight can shape the future of biodiversity protection.