ENERGY + CLIMATE + NATURE

XPRIZE Rainforest


Providence+
Providence+
Barcelona, Spain
  • Finalist
  • Semifinalist
  • Qualified Competitor

Providence+ team is a binational collaboration between researchers from Spain and Brazil, including the Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics at the Technical University of Catalonia, BarcelonaTech (UPC-Spain), the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute (Brazil), and Pompeu Fabra University (Spain). The team's solution for the XPRIZE competition builds on their existing Providence technology, developed for 10+ years through a binational scientific partnership. Providence has been deployed in various rainforest environments, including the entire Mamirauá Reserve in Brazil, a protected area of over 1 million hectares of Amazon Flooded Forests, whose biodiversity is now fully monitored by an automated system. Providence+ has made a pivotal scientific decision in its approach: to offer an all-in-one scalable tool, the DROP - Deep Rainforest Operation Platform - that integrates cutting-edge technologies to (1) provide a comprehensive inventory of biodiversity, (2) rapidly monitor target species and detect trends in their presence, (3) assess abiotic environmental factors, forest structure, and quality, (4) generate insights into ecosystem health, species ecology, and behavior, (5) identify priority areas for conservation, and (6) protect Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) territories. The low-cost, scalable solution empowers governments, industries, NGOs, and indigenous communities with actionable insights for biodiversity protection, education, and resource management. Key features of DROP: A fully integrated autonomous system for collecting sounds, images, and eDNA samples; Multi-environment monitoring (canopy, water bodies, ground); Real-time AI bioacoustics processing on board; Real-time satellite transmission of processed data; Immediate biodiversity insights; Long-range, high-fidelity UAV communication enabling remote long-term DROP deployment.