Location: Kenya
He/him
Gautam is the founder of Internet of Elephants, a social enterprise that develops groundbreaking digital tools to engage people with wildlife. He believes that engaging the public with nature and its conservation is the most important thing we can do for the long-term health of the planet and that we need to find modern mediums to tell stories and foster that engagement. Internet of Elephants tells nature and wildlife stories through thoughtful combinations of mobile games, augmented reality, and data visualisations that use GPS and other data gathered about animals and the planet. In doing so, they hope to catalyse new approaches to engaging the public with wildlife. Gautam is both a National Geographic and TED Fellow.

Initiative: Wild Ideas Lab

Internet of Elephants is launching the Wild Ideas Lab, designed to produce the world’s most innovative digital public engagement tools that drive measurable actions for the health of our planet. Combining science, technology, play, and conservation expertise, the Wild Ideas Lab is a market-driven experimental laboratory. Akin to the MIT Media Lab, the Wild Ideas Lab will be set up to ask and answer innovative yet critical questions devoted to rekindling the relationship between people and the planet through rapidly developing and launching solutions. By achieving its goal to enable one billion people to form direct bonds with wild animals and wild places, the Lab will develop evidence of audience value systems towards nature and biodiversity that will shift market dynamics and environmental policy.

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Location: Philippines
She/her
Sarah Queblatin is a regenerative design and development specialist weaving collective experiences in the fields of peacebuilding, biocultural heritage, mental health, and humanitarian innovation for more than 15 years. She founded Living Story Landscapes which is working with cultural memory and imagination as a response to the polycrisis. Previously, she founded Green Releaf Initiative working with regenerative solutions in disasters and displacement. She is a juror for the LUSH Spring Prize, a wisdom council member of the Global Ecovillage Network Oceania and Asia, a founding member for Permaculture for Refugees, and an inner council member for the Conscious Food Systems Alliance convened by UNDP.

Initiative: Living Story Landscapes

Living Story Landscapes envisions the healing of ecosystems with historical trauma from places of refuge into sanctuaries of life. Working with a trauma-informed approach to ecosystem protection and restoration with communities healing from colonisation, climate emergencies, and conflict, it works with the process of “restoring” and re-storying” collective belonging and identity with nature to meet a bioregion’s aim for resilience and regeneration for its inhabitants, both human and non-human.

Weaving solutions in the backdrop of the polycrisis, it aims to shape existing or emerging learning centres for bioregional regeneration in harnessing cultural memory and imagination by bridging the arts and science working alongside artists, wisdom keepers, regenerative innovators, the academe, local governments, and social enterprises.

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Location: The Netherlands
She/her
Wakanyi Hoffman is a public speaker, author and indigenous knowledge scholar. She is currently the lead PhD researcher on Sustainable African AI Systems at Utrecht University’s Inclusive AI Lab under the Centre for Global Challenges (UGlobe). She is working on the intersection of Ubuntu ethics and sustainable practices within the design and adaptation of AI tools. Wakanyi is the founder of the African Folktales Project, a digital database of folktales from Africa which contain indigenous knowledge that contributes to solutions for the challenges of sustainability and environmental conservation. She founded this project as a response to the lack of African stories and indigenous knowledge in formal school systems in Africa. Wakanyi has a background in media and communications and a Masters in Development Education and Global Learning from University College London (UCL). She has also authored several children’s books and speaks on the topic of Ubuntu African philosophy as a conception of human flourishing. Wakanyi has lived and worked in several countries and currently lives in The Netherlands.

Initiative: The African Folktales Project

The African Folktales Project (AFP), is a rich resource of indigenous wisdom and knowledge passed down as stories from the first human civilisations in Africa to the present. The AFP is founded on the Ubuntu philosophy that promotes the notion that human beings are part of the evolutionary ecology and that we are future ancestors and exist to serve as custodians of knowledge about our natural world. This project is a continuous dialogue about how our individual choices today will impact tomorrow's civilisations' survival on our shared planet. A careful selection of courses is offered using an African Indigenous Knowledge Education curriculum designed to provide holistic solutions to the challenges of achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). The AFP curriculum uses oral storytelling as the pedagogical approach to passing down this knowledge. The curriculum uses traditional African stories re-imagined to inspire 21st-century learners and educators to envision a future where all world citizens work together to promote sustainable development and protect our natural landscapes.

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Location: Kenya
She/her
Samyukta works at the intersection of astrotourism and dark sky conservation. Her work aims to integrate astronomy, ecology, and cultural heritage, aiming to foster sustainable tourism models that protect natural darkness and empower local communities. Her expertise encompasses both theoretical and practical astronomy, complemented by a sensitivity to rural economic contexts and an evolving understanding of nocturnal ecosystems. This background informs her approach to astrotourism, blending scientific knowledge with a deep appreciation for the natural world and its conservation.

Initiative

Excessive artificial light harms wildlife and ecosystems, especially nocturnal species, but light is not broadly recognised as an environmental pollutant. Samyukta’s project aims to explore ways that indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage can promote dark sky conservation and nocturnal habitat protection. She aims to create a dark sky conservation model that both incentivises the protection of nocturnal environments and culturally empowers local communities by honouring Indigenous perspectives of the night sky.

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Location: Israel
He/him
Gal is a passionate wildlife biologist and entrepreneur at the forefront of conservation innovation, with expertise in leveraging emerging technologies to drive systemic change. He co-founded Wild Biotech Ltd, where he led global expeditions to unravel the secrets of wildlife microbiomes. He earned a Master's in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge, researching "The Rethinking of Conservation Paradigms." At Unearthodox, Gal co-led the "Digital Disruption" and "SciFi, AI, and Futures for Nature" initiatives, publishing resources to make emerging technologies accessible to the wider conservation community. Nature Perspectives is the culmination of his lifelong devotion to nature and a testament to his ingenuity.

Initiative: Nature Perspectives

Nature Perspectives has embarked on an exciting journey to simulate nonhuman perspectives, using AI to enable meaningful conversations with the natural world. Through meaningful conversational experiences, they set out to reimagine our relationships with the rest of nature, promote nature’s agency in our societies, and spark new scientific endeavours.

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Location: South Africa
He/him
Ulrico is a conservationist, technologist and entrepreneur. Based in South Africa, Ulrico has founded and run companies in the media space for over 20 years. He started Habitat XR in 2016 to explore the intersection of immersive technologies (like virtual reality and holograms) with nature -- quickly discovering how much potential they held. This resulted in the Habitat Nature Parks Foundation for environmental education. As producer and director, Ulrico's nature experiences have won numerous awards; he has been dubbed as one of Fast Company Magazine's "Most Creative People in Business" and won South Africa's 40 Under 40 for Technology.

Initiative: Habitat Nature Parks Foundation: The FutureZoo

The Habitat Nature Parks Foundation deals in the currency of environmental empathy. It addresses several problems: our environment is in trouble because of humans; by living in human-centric urban spaces, people no longer have a connection to the natural world; zoos and aquariums haven't fostered enough empathy and care for the worlds we're disconnected from; and immersive technologies are a proven way to do it much better. The foundation's inaugural project, The FutureZoo, is reinventing environmental education for a modern world at scale.

Location: Europe (France, Belgium, UK)
She/her
Olivia Lazard works on the future of planetary security from a global governance and eco-technologies perspective. With a background in conflict resolution and deep field experience in some of the world's most fragile contexts, she now focuses on preventing and mitigating the risks associated with global competition over specific renewable and non-renewable resources. Simultaneously, she researches the ways in which societies can adapt to climate and ecological disruptions to remain within a safe operating space, a collective security system and within governance structures that support open societies. Her work tackles the decarbonisation-regeneration nexus, the core pillar for the future of global security and peace.

Initiative: Transition Intelligence

Transition Intelligence is dedicated to analysing transition stakes through the lens of security and identifying international governance systems that classify critical minerals essential for the energy transition as global public goods. Transition Intelligence is also interested in developing methodologies that integrate complex regeneration with political mediation processes, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. The institute will conduct research on the future of planetary security governance.