Okala

📯 Nature tech in emerging markets? It's a strange irony that at Okala we see nature tech disproportionately deployed in emerging economies. But it makes total sense- this is where some of the most pristine ecosystems remaining on the planet bump up against the economic aspirations of their populations. Often, the prescriptive approaches to surveying biodiversity that we find in the UK and Europe are absent or just don't work, and can be replaced by a focus on using the best tools available for the job of mapping biodiversity robustly, transparently and at scale. Here, lenders- like multilateral development banks- through lender requirements like IFC - International Finance Corporation's Performance Standard 6 #PS6 or The World Bank Group's Environmental and Social Standard 6 #ESS6, mandate the protection of species and critical habitats through the application of the mitigation hierarchy. 💡 This demonstrates the power of finance to safeguard nature- if you don't meet these requirements, you can't borrow money for your project. That's a 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 long introduction to say- 🍸 Come and join us and our partners Invest Africa Ltd on the evening of Monday the 20th, 18:00 - 20:00 in London 🏆 to celebrate England winning the World Cup! - and to understand how our work at Okala is supporting projects in emerging economies minimise impacts on nature and biodiversity. Link to registration in the comments-

☕ Did you know that wild Gabonese chimpanzees take a morning coffee break between 10 - 11 am? Well, that's what our data shows, as well as daily activity cycles for another >300+ vertebrate species we picked up on bioacoustics and camera traps. Thank you Nature Tech Collective for the opportunity to showcase the awesome Okala NatureCube and bring this technology to people's attention.

? Still deciding how to put 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 biodiversity measurement into your projects-? Come and see us at London Climate Action Week 💡 Maybe it’s the return of species like this African Golden Cat? Take 15 or 30 minutes out of your packed schedule to join myself and/or Dr Robin Whytock for a coffee, tea or snack at our London office, right in the City near Bank. We'll also be at Nature4Climate’s Nature Hub at Zoological Society of London (ZSL) all of Thursday and dipping in and out of Reset Connect - thanks Heewon Kang! Restoring and conserving biodiversity starts and ends with measuring species on site. At Okala we’re working globally with biodiversity credit and carbon credit developers and accreditors, forestry, land managers, and others to integrate verifiable, cost-effective and transparent biodiversity monitoring and baselines into their projects and management programs. Please DM me if you want to say hi! P.S I'll be taking a clicker to events to count how many times I hear ‘high integrity’ mentioned and projects claiming to support biodiversity P.S.S I'll be taking a second clicker to count how many of these don’t outline how they intend to measure biodiversity or demonstrate additionality 😉 Looking forward to seeing you- Toral Shah, Keith Bohannon, James Pilkington, Tom Beckett, Carlijn van Dam, Sarah Nelson, Emma Schofield, Thomas W. Crowther, Carl Moxley, Mahima Sukhdev, Tim Christophersen, Rob Evans, Benjamin Barca, Laura Plant, Stefan Ferguson Ben Hart and many more!

Excellent focus on natural capital accounting this week in Bangkok at the World Bank Global Program on Sustainability — a fantastic session showcasing nature data with NatureMetrics, ARIES, Echo Lab, Okala, Chloris Geospatial, NatCap+, Hexagon and Nature Tech Collective. The headline? Data alone is not enough — it must answer the questions that drive nature-positive outcomes and address nature-related risk. The technology stack increasingly exists. We have moved from a world of data scarcity to one of purposeful data: the right data, at the right resolution, for the right decisions. NatureMetrics sits at the centre of this — enabling better investments, better policy, and better outcomes by using data with intent and responsibility. The challenge now is no longer data absence. It is embedding nature into incentives, balance sheets, fiscal systems, and capital allocation frameworks. How do we translate ecosystem value into financial decision-usefulness? How do we turn measurement into action where it matters? Our ecosystem condition indices track the health, composition, structure, and function of ecosystems over time — helping us recognise degradation before it becomes failure, and identify where restoration will have the greatest impact. We can now bring these directly into natural capital accounts. Interoperability, collaboration, and enabling policy are what close the gap between clunky data and transformative data. The future is here. The financial system needs to fully meet it.

"We've entered the '𝗡𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝘄𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁'- rapid advances in both hardware and software have made site-level species and wider biodiversity data easier, faster and cheaper to collect 𝘢𝘯𝘥 process 𝘢𝘯𝘥 report." That was my message to The World Bank Group last week at their 8th Global Policy Forum on Natural Capital in the mega metropolis #Bangkok. World Bank's customers must meet the Environmental and Social Standard 6 (#ESS6)- a requirement to identify their project's impact on species and habitats. Okala is shaping this transformative era of automated on-site data collection and AI data processing with human verification- it presents real opportunities for organisations, including:  > greater volume, breadth and diversity of species data from existing budgets  > reduced health and safety risks to field teams  > extended surveying periods, camera traps and bioacoustics left infield for up to 3 months > opportunities to engage local communities in data collection and remote experts in data processing, e.g., species identification from video/ calls This results in:  > increasingly sensitive biodiversity baselines - less chance of discovering regulated species further into the project cycle  > impact measurement- enhanced ability to track ecological changes on site and link these ecological responses to business activities (good and bad!) > guiding management towards more ecologically positive outcomes  > demonstrating application of the mitigation hierarchy for lenders  > transparent, automated biodiversity assessments and reporting for: #ESIA, #DueDiligence, #TNFD, #NaturePositive, operational performance monitoring, #highintegrity, regulatory compliance, lender requirements, annual sustainability reports, supporting company commitments e.g., no net loss or net positive impact. As the links between economy and ecology become increasingly recognised, it’s hard to imagine a future where the ecology of your organisation- how it’s interacting with species and the wider environment- diminishes in importance over time. So many powerful talks and discussions, thank you Nature Tech Collective's Gilad Goren for coordinating the tech super panel- Pippa Howard, Florian Reber, Kaja Wasik Fredrik Andersson Guldkula, Alessio Bulckaen, Lisa Mandle. A special thank you to our hosts the World Bank team- Valerie Hickey, Leela Raina, Gianleo Frisari Nagaraja Harshadeep and others, keep up the good work! Great to meet you Camille Maclet, Prof Nicola Ranger, Katie Lee, Antoine Raes, Rayne van den Berg, Alex White, Ulrich Volz

𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 🌍 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱: 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 This morning at #IFACultivatingTomorrow2026, Session 3 looked at what sustainability leadership means in a more fragmented operating environment. Moderated by Yvonne Harz-Pitre (IFA), the session brought together Nicolas D. (McKinsey & Company), Paul Clements-Hunt (The Blended Capital Group), Dr Robin Whytock (Okala), and Michael Obersteiner (University of Oxford) to explore how geopolitics, competitiveness, finance, disclosure, nature, and resilience are changing the way companies approach sustainability strategy. The discussion made clear that sustainability has not become less important. But it is becoming more grounded, more operational, and more closely tied to business resilience, investment decisions, and long-term competitiveness. Speakers examined how companies can navigate a world where policy signals are less aligned, nature and biodiversity expectations are growing, and investors are looking for clearer evidence of measurable progress. 🦺 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Session 4 turned to a different, but equally practical, question: how can the industry use data and technology to reduce risk before incidents happen? Led by Volker Andresen (IFA), with Gareth Lane, MBA (ERM), Kelvin Roth (CF Industries), Nadav Even Hen (ICL Group), and Bill Cooper (Nutrien), the session highlighted how AI, robotics, drones, wearables, advanced analytics, and digital tools are being applied to improve safety performance across operations. (More photos will be published) A central focus was the IFA NextGen Safety Project, which is drawing on 40,000 health and safety incident records from across the industry to identify patterns, weak signals, and technologies that can support better prevention. The message was not simply that technology can improve safety. It was that technology works best when backed by strong data, and embedded in a culture where leadership, learning, and accountability are already in place. Together, the two sessions pointed to a common theme: progress depends on moving from ambition to implementation, with better evidence, stronger systems, and shared learning. #IFA #IFACultivatingTomorrow2026 #Sustainability #Safety #Innovation #AI #Fertilizers #FoodSecurity Alzbeta Klein, CFA | Patrick H. | Achim Dobermann | Volker Andresen | Yvonne Harz-Pitre | Rob Mills | Annie COHEN

🐦⬛ 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: we are very excited to have Trisha Taneja, Investor Strategies Director at the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), joining us at 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 next week! Trisha will be moderating the panel- 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙍𝙚𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙨: 𝙈𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘽𝙞𝙤𝙙𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙉𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚  with Dr Stephanie Hime, FISEP - Little Blue Research Richard Howard - Carbon Rewild Rob Wreglesworth - Rob Wreglesworth Joe Huddart, PhD - Okala 💡 Why is Trisha so ideally placed for 𝙄𝙉? 🌳 She is responsible for the team that supports investors with practical tools to manage climate risks in investment decision making. 🌱 She has over a decade of leadership experience in climate finance, having worked at Sustainalytics, Deutsche Bank and Arcadis in senior roles leading both growth and operations functions. 🌲 In her career, she has advised investors and corporates across sectors, asset classes and public and private markets on the financial materiality of climate risk. Trisha holds a BA from The University of British Columbia, Masters from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and an MBA from Bayes Business School. Don't miss your chance to meet her and understand more about how the IIGCC works with institutional investors on climate mitigation strategies. 📣 Less than one week to go - secure your place today, tickets are limited.