Resources

AI arrives as land, water and power.

Data centres are being built on and next to Indigenous lands. One AI data centre can draw 100 megawatts of electricity, as much as 100,000 homes use at the same time, and around 2 million litres of water a day for cooling. Worldwide, data centres are expected to use more than twice as much electricity in 2030 as they did in 2024.

They also need minerals. Of the world’s energy transition mineral projects, 54 percent are on or near the lands of Indigenous Peoples. AI is now being used to find new deposits as well.

On 10 September, six speakers took this apart from six different places.

While there is a wealth of spatial data and tools available to support forest protection, these resources often remain inaccessible to the communities that need them most. To bridge that gap, Conservation Metrics, along with UNDP, the Equator Initiative, NASA, Nature4Climate, Awana Digital, Rainforest Foundation US and Global Forest Watch, developed an online, self-paced certificate course to equip Indigenous and frontline communities with foundational knowledge and practical skills to map, monitor, and manage their forests.

This tutorial demonstrates how to quickly develop an automated system to detect the sounds of a species of interest using only a handful of short clips exemplifying the species.