“We challenged a lot of companies and start-ups to come up with innovative ideas to protect biodiversity in our Brabantse Wouden,“ says Steven Vanonckelen, coordinator of the Brabantse Wouden National Park. ”A jury selected five projects from seventeen candidates. These projects can help reduce recreational pressure in the park or improve nature management.”

“We already had a lot of information from volunteers, but now we also have an automated system,” he continues. “This information is not only useful for site managers, but also for visitors. A great deal of information that would normally remain hidden is now being made available to the general public.”

The Leuven-based company Sentigrate will also develop a digital solution to monitor recreational pressure. Based on data from apps such as Strava or Wandelknooppunten, they can visualize visitor flows. “We notice that it is often difficult to feed back changes in the forest to policymakers,” says Mathijs Vanhaverbeke of Sentigrate. “If we want fewer people in a certain area, for example because it contains vulnerable nature, a forest ranger can close off that area. Currently, it is difficult to see the effects of this. With the help of apps such as Strava, we can now map the effects of these changes. We are therefore very proud to be part of this. There is also a lot of overlap with the other participants, and it would be great if we could collaborate.”

The other winners are Nunki.ai with their AI-driven park ranger, Heliovision, which will monitor vegetation with wildlife cameras, and LoFeNix, which will deploy wireless sensors in the park.

The Brabantse Wouden National Park, together with Amazon and the regional innovation hub Leuven Mindgate, donated a total of €150,000. The American company also finances the national park through a €1.1 million climate fund. This fund is used for scientific research, reforestation, and the expansion of habitats.