CBD COP17: Montek Brings Field-Tested Digital Conservation Solutions to YEREVAN, Armenia

Across three sessions in Yerevan, the Chairman of Paradise Foundation and Co-founder of Montek Technology shared how digital tools can strengthen the effective management required by the global 30x30 target.

YEREVAN, Armenia, October 26, 2026 — From October 24 to 26, Shawn Zhang, Chairman of Paradise Foundation and Co-founder of Montek Technology, participated in three sessions at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, or CBD COP17, in Yerevan, Armenia.

On October 24, Zhang delivered a keynote presentation at the COP17 China Pavilion titled “Conservation in the Digital Age: How Digital Twins Integrate AI and Drones to Transform Protected Area Management.” Later that day, he joined a roundtable on innovative corporate participation in a protected-area system centered on national parks. On October 26, he spoke at a session on mobilizing social capital and resources for national parks, botanical gardens and integrated biodiversity conservation.

Across the three sessions, Zhang delivered one consistent message: achieving the global 30x30 target will require more than increasing the number and coverage of protected areas. It will also require the capacity to manage them effectively.

Beyond Boundaries on a Map

Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for at least 30 percent of the world’s terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas to be effectively conserved and managed by 2030 through protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, known as OECMs.

The words “effectively conserved and managed” are critical.

Designating a protected area or recognizing an OECM establishes its boundary and conservation purpose. But lasting outcomes depend on what happens within that boundary every day: whether managers can understand changes across the landscape, whether rangers can reach areas at risk, whether important information can be identified in time and whether an alert can lead to coordinated action.

This is the management challenge that Montek brought to COP17.

Introducing a Different Kind of Conservation Technology

Through Zhang’s presentations and discussions, international participants encountered a Montek that is not simply a provider of drones, AI models or monitoring equipment.

Montek is a protected-area management system developed from more than a decade of frontline conservation practice by Paradise Foundation in China.

Much of its early development took place at Laohegou in Pingwu County, Sichuan Province, within the core area of Giant Panda National Park. The region’s extensive old-growth forests provide important habitat and ecological corridors for giant pandas and many other species. Its steep mountains, deep valleys and limited public network coverage also create challenges shared by protected areas in many parts of the world.

Remote areas can be difficult to reach on foot. Wildlife images, patrol records and information from different devices may remain scattered. Potential risks can be detected without reaching managers quickly enough to support a response. Data may be collected for years without being brought together for landscape-level analysis.

“Montek was not conceived in an urban office,” Zhang said. “It grew out of the mountains of Pingwu and the daily work of rangers crossing rivers and muddy trails.”

The system was therefore not built by starting with a technology and searching for a conservation application. It started with the problems faced by protected-area managers and rangers, then brought together the technologies needed to solve them.

From Field Information to Management Action

The Montek Full-Stack Conservation System integrates four core modules: Sensing, Communications, AI, and Spatiotemporal Data & Multidimensional Models.

Sensing allows protected areas to collect information through drones, camera traps, underwater cameras, acoustic monitoring equipment, environmental and hydrological sensors, and mobile patrol tools.

Communications connect personnel, sensing devices, edge-computing equipment and the management platform, including in areas with limited or no public network coverage.

AI helps identify wildlife and potential human disturbance, process large volumes of field imagery and prioritize information that requires attention.

Spatiotemporal Data & Multidimensional Models connect terrain, ecosystems, species records, personnel, equipment, patrol routes, incidents and management tasks within a shared digital environment.

Together, the four modules create a continuous management process: information is detected, transmitted and analyzed; risks are assessed; tasks are assigned; rangers respond in the field; and the results are recorded for review.

The purpose is not to replace rangers or local knowledge. It is to help frontline teams see more of the landscape, identify relevant information sooner and coordinate action more effectively.

What Montek Can Contribute to 30x30

Montek does not decide which places should be designated as protected areas or recognized as OECMs. Technology also cannot replace sound governance, scientific expertise, stable financing or the participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Montek’s contribution is to strengthen the operational capacity that protected and conserved areas need after recognition.

It can help managers answer practical questions: What is happening across the landscape? Where did an event occur? Which personnel and equipment are nearby? What requires immediate attention? Was a response completed? What can be learned from the result?

It can also create more consistent records of monitoring, decisions and field actions, supporting evaluation, adaptive management and reporting. Private deployment options allow protected-area managers and landowners to retain control over sensitive ecological, personnel and operational data.

These capabilities can serve national parks and nature reserves, as well as OECMs, community-conserved landscapes, forests, wetlands, privately managed land and other areas contributing to global biodiversity goals.

Bringing Field Experience into the Global Conversation

The three COP17 sessions placed Montek within three closely connected discussions: how technology can improve protected-area management, how businesses and civil society can participate in conservation, and how social capital and wider resources can support long-term biodiversity action.

Zhang’s participation allowed the global conservation community to understand both where Montek came from and what it is designed to do. It is a system developed from conservation practice, tested in real landscapes and intended to connect technology with the people responsible for protecting nature.

Montek’s contribution to 30x30 begins after a boundary appears on the map. It helps turn that boundary into a functioning management system—one in which changes can be observed, risks can be assessed, responses can be coordinated, actions can be recorded and management can improve over time.

That is how global biodiversity commitments become work on the ground.