10 November 2014: Participants at the World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia, will have the opportunity to take part in an EcoHack World event, which will bring together designers, hackers and scientists to create visualizations and build tools that aim to foster environmental protection and understanding.

An EcoHack uses technology to improve and better understand the natural environment, “creating things that will have an impact, with no restrictions on how you get there.” This ‘World Parks Congress Edition’ of the EcoHack will use technology to start building solutions to tackle environmental challenges, including climate change, conservation, food security and sustainable development.

Participants at an EcoHack pitch ideas, which hackers then select to work on during the event. Examples of past ideas include building maps to share information on forest loss, using balloons to learn about microbes in the air and creating data visualizations. This EcoHack is inviting ideas on protected area related projects, in line with the Congress theme, ‘Parks, People, Planet: Inspiring solutions,’ which will explore the role of conservation in addressing challenges such as deforestation, human health and water security.

This EcoHack is part of a three-continent relay that includes an event at the World Parks Congress, as well as hackathons at: the UN Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) in Cambridge, the United Kingdom (UK); Development Seed in Washington, DC, US; CartoDV in New York, US; Mapbox in San Francisco, US; and Medialab Prado in Madrid, Spain.

The World Parks Congress shares knowledge and innovation on protected areas, conservation and development. It takes place once a decade. [UNEP-WCMC Press Release] [Ecohack Website] [World Parks Congress Website] [IISD RS Coverage of World Parks Congress]