Environmental Groups Are Using AI To Track Fires and Wildlife While Warning About Data Centre Damage

Environmental organisations are increasingly using AI to monitor wildlife, analyse climate data and identify wildfire risks, while warning that the data centres powering the technology are driving up electricity demand, water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

A Reuters investigation published on 7 November 2026 found that all 15 environmental, conservation and development organisations interviewed were using AI while expressing concerns about its environmental impact.

The findings expose a difficult balance for conservationists. AI is making research faster and more accessible, but the infrastructure required to operate it carries environmental costs of its own.

How AI Is Helping Environmental Groups Protect Wildlife

Kenya's Save the Elephants is using machine learning to improve wildlife surveys and study elephant communication. Chief executive Frank Pope described how an aerial survey of Kenya's largest protected area in 2025 produced approximately 200,000 images, which took nine people nine months to examine manually.

AI models trained on NVIDIA's GeForce graphics platforms can now complete similar analysis in hours.

Pope said AI-assisted comparisons suggested traditional surveys had missed about a third of elephants, half of zebras and giraffes, and three-quarters of oryx.

Better estimates could help conservation groups secure funding and protect wildlife. He said AI could make nature 'measurable and therefore investable'.

The Jane Goodall Institute is also using AI to digitise decades of handwritten chimpanzee records from Tanzania's Gombe National Park. A tool developed with Amazon Web Services has cut the estimated processing time from 13–15 years to around two, said institute vice-president Lilian Pintea.

Conservation International has adopted AI to assess wildfire hotspots detected by satellites and send alerts to community forest patrols in remote parts of Cambodia.

Its AI lead, Ali Swanson, acknowledged the technology's environmental costs but said it could help conservationists respond more quickly to emerging threats.

Data Centre Expansion Raises Environmental Concerns

The International Energy Agency estimates that global data centre electricity consumption could reach approximately 945 terawatt-hours annually by 2030, more than double current levels and comparable to Japan's annual electricity use.

The agency also projects that data centre water consumption could increase from approximately 560 billion litres in 2023 to 1.2 trillion litres annually by 2030.

These projections cover data centres generally, rather than AI operations alone, although growing AI demand is among the factors driving expansion.

Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet have reported rising emissions, with data centre expansion among the contributing factors. Amazon defended its AI products, citing low-carbon energy and efficiency measures, while Microsoft and Google did not comment.

Conservation groups are also trying to reduce their computing footprint: the World Resources Institute limits energy-intensive AI tools, while The Nature Conservancy analyses footage from AI-powered fishing cameras on board vessels to reduce data transfers and energy use.

Greenpeace International takes a cautious approach, using limited AI tools under guidelines that emphasise transparency and human oversight. Its climate and energy campaigner Katrin Xueying Wu has also questioned the need for expanding large-scale data centres.

The issue is on the agenda at COP31, which opened in Turkey on 9 November 2026, where the Turkish presidency introduced the Antalya AI Pledge to promote more climate-conscious AI development and use.

For conservation organisations, the challenge is increasingly practical. They must weigh the research and protection benefits of AI against the electricity, water and infrastructure required to keep it running.