IARAA Project – Artificial Intelligence
What is the IARAA Project?
The IARAA Project – Artificial Intelligence for Amazon Environmental Recognition is using advanced technologies to monitor mammals and moths through equipment installed on the property of Amazon Emotions.
Using cameras, sensors and computer vision algorithms, wildlife presence is automatically recorded in real time, directly in its natural habitat, with no human interference. This data is essential to understanding how species move, respond to environmental changes and interact with one another, opening new pathways for Amazon biodiversity conservation.
What IARAA does
- Cameras and environmental sensors
- Computer vision and AI algorithms
- Automated data analysis
to detect, identify and monitor wildlife, such as mammals and moths, directly in their natural habitat, in real time and without human interference.
What Are the IARAA Project Goals?
The project generates high-quality data that helps scientists:
- Monitor Amazonian biodiversity in a non-invasive way
- Generate high-quality, real-time data
- Understand how biodiversity responds to human and climate pressures
- Strengthen evidence-based conservation strategies
- Bridge science, technology and society
- Raise awareness of the Amazon’s ecological complexity and urgency of conservation
Beyond research
A distinctive aspect of IARAA is its commitment to science communication. The data collected will be transformed into interactive and educational exhibitions, bringing the public closer to cutting-edge research conducted inside the Amazon rainforest.
Where it operates
One of its main field sites is the observation tower at the Amazon Museum (MUSA) in Manaus. More recently, the project has expanded to the Amazon Emotions Research Station, located in Presidente Figueiredo, a two-hour drive from Manaus in the highlands of the northeastern Brazilian Amazon — where equipment continuously records biodiversity data from the forest canopy and surrounding ecosystems.
Why the Presidente Figueiredo Region?
The Presidente Figueiredo region holds a unique biogeographic position at the interface between the Guiana Shield and Amazonian highland ecosystems. This transition zone hosts an exceptional mosaic of habitats, where species from different biomes overlap, interact and respond sensitively to environmental and climatic changes. Studying biodiversity in this region enables IARAA to capture ecological dynamics that are not observable in lowland forests alone, making Presidente Figueiredo a strategic natural laboratory for understanding patterns of species distribution, resilience and conservation across the Amazon.
Who is Involved
- Researchers from INPA (National Institute for Amazonian Research)
- PPBio (Brazilian Biodiversity Research Program)
- PPG-Eco/INPA
- Amazon Emotions