Analytical Corner: Big Data Meets Whale Conservation: A Nature-based Solution for Climate Change

Location: Meeting Halls A&B, HQ1-3-430A&B

OVERVIEW

“Nature-based solutions simultaneously address the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. A pervasive challenge in designing such policies is to overcome the inherent global externalities and coordination problems – a challenge that resonates with the IMF’s core mandate. We use the protection of great whales from vessel strikes as a laboratory and show how geospatial big data can facilitate international cooperation. We combine satellite ship tracking data with the latest research in marine biology and environmental economics to develop a model that measures the social cost of deadly whale strikes. Our work can inform policies that support whale conservation and climate goals, and it also illustrates how data-driven analysis can enable even-handed solutions that benefit the international community as a whole. The project received multiple awards in the United Nations 2022 Big Data Hackathon.”