Ethical ecosurveillance: Mitigating the potential impacts on humans of widespread environmental monitoring

Ecosurveillance is the technologyassisted collection and analysis of data about wildlife, ecosystems, and/or people for the purposes of tracking or monitoring environmental distributions, behaviours, or indicators. Ecosurveillance is becoming increasingly important in environmental research and policy. Thousands of camera traps, continuous video streams, audio recorders, remote sensors, apps, drones, satellites and biotelemetry/biologging devices are deployed around the world to monitor territories and track the individual and group behaviour of animals and their habitats. Researchers, NGOs and government agencies (including enforcement authorities) are using Internet and social media surveillance tools to identify and monitor species distributions and behaviour, document proand antienvironmental human activities and identify trends in how people experience and talk about nature. Ecosurveillance therefore has tremendous upside for environmental protection and conservation, allowing researchers and authorities access to critical data to enhance scientific understanding, enforce regulations and improve decisionmaking. Most of the literature on ecosurveillance is consequently optimistic and celebratory in tone, as new methods, technologies Received: 30 June 2021 | Accepted: 14 March 2022 DOI: 10.1002/pan3.10327