About the Program

Southeast Asia’s tropical forests are among the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots, mirroring the vibrant cultural diversity in this region. As these natural ecosystems face rapid changes from climate change, sprawling development, and resource extraction, local scientists and conservationists lead the charge to protect these habitats to benefit nature and local communities. While technologies like camera traps and drones are widely used, passive acoustic monitoring remains rare due to its novelty and high cost.

A partnership between the Yang Center’s Capacity Building and Southeast Asia Research programs, BEAT centers around building relationships and embracing a locally-led collaborative approach to data-driven, sustainable, and ethical conservation that moves away from extractive, parachute, and colonial practices that harm local and Indigenous communities. To support a more just, resilient, and sustainable future for the people and forests of Southeast Asia, we are working towards a future where local scientists and practitioners effectively conceive, design, conduct, and publish conservation bioacoustics work.

To achieve this, through BEAT we are training, equipping, and supporting a network of diverse groups of scientists and conservation practitioners in universities, governments, NGOs, and communities. Through the BEAT program, we aim to remove the barriers that local practitioners face in carrying out conservation work.

As part of this yearlong program, teams in BEAT receive an equipment package that includes 4 SwiftOne acoustic recorders. There are monthly virtual training sessions that focus on different topics in passive acoustic monitoring. Each BEAT teams is linked with a dedicated team of mentors, including members of Yang Center, BEAT Y1 participants, and local experts. Together, this experience provides a foundation for these participants to learn how to do bioacoustics.