I have been working with my classmate on a data analytics project about biodiversity in BC, Canada. It was inspired by the Living Planet Report published by World Wide Fund for Nature (“WWF”). Highlight of the report is the Living Planet Index (“LPI”), managed by Zoological Society of London (“ZSL”) and WWF. LPI is basically an global indicator of change in biodiversity. While there is little we can do on global level as individuals or small organizations, we can definitely do something locally.

Another inspiration of the project comes from the Canadian government. Canada has always been at the forefront of environmental protection.

Canada is some of the earliest adopter of United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (“UN CBD”), and also the earliest to ratify it among industrialized countries.

With this in mind, it should not be suprising that the government comes up with its own index, called Canadian Species Index, which its methodology is similar to LPI.

“Biodiversity is immense. Each and every species is unique and has its own way of life. I believe ways to conserve should be just as diverse as biodiversity itself.” (Tsang, 2021)

By that, I mean we should also look at the problem on a more specific level. That is why I started this project in order to know the current states of biodiversity on smaller level.

The central idea is that specific data yield specific results. Specific results yield specfic insights. Specific insights yield specific solutions.

Since the dataset behind LPI is a compilation of scientific studies and surveys from online and government databases all over the world, population information of certain region or taxonomic groups to be extracted for further analyses. I see enormous potential in this dataset and approach.

I genuinely hope the outcome of my project will be interesting and useful for local communities, conservation groups and authorities alike. I also want to emphasize that this project, along with all conservation efforts, is targeted towards literally all human beings as we all are stakeholders of this beautiful planet.

P.S. That is not a real quote. I am just making fun of myself.
P.P.S. Attached please find a photo of I made back in my hometown, Hong Kong. It is the flower of coral tree (Erythrina, species unknown). coraltree