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Legit Security Delivers AI-Powered Accuracy to Secrets Scanning

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Legit Security, the leading application security posture management (ASPM) platform that enables secure application delivery, today announced expanded and AI–powered capabilities to detect and protect secrets across the software development pipeline. With secrets at the heart of enabling applications to operate, understanding where they exist – beyond hard–coded secrets and source code – and preventing secrets from leaking is paramount.

Secrets – including API keys, access keys, passwords and personally identifiable information (PII) – are a focal point for attackers due to their high value and the increasing sprawl of such data within development environments. In addition, well–known supply chain attacks have resulted from the exposure of secrets often found within source code. Protecting secrets is also central to meeting global compliance requirements, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and many other state, federal and industry requirements.

Innovating Secrets Scanning with AI
Secrets scanners are known to often have a high false positive rate, especially when not finely tuned or customized for the specific customer environment. With this release, Legit is the first to apply AI/ML to significantly reduce noise associated with secrets scanning. The context around many secrets, which can be complex, drives a significant volume of noise, and false positives. Legit uses a set of advanced heuristics and custom AI to deliver extremely accurate results.

Detecting Secrets Across Development Environments
Legit delivers comprehensive security by leveraging AI to detect secrets across all development assets, including code repositories, source code management (SCM) tools, build tools and logs, artifacts, private and public documentations, and more. In addition, Legit’s deep analysis uncovers buried secrets within assets such as source code history or modified Confluence pages. These assets are still accessible and sought after by malicious actors but are hard to discover by conventional means or available AppSec scanners. Legit's visibility and context enable CISOs and their teams to more effectively detect secrets, prioritize remediation, and put preventive guardrails in place.

“We see more CISOs and their teams prioritize secrets as a security initiative, driven heavily by the fact that many of their peers have experienced secrets compromised,” said Legit co–founder and CEO Roni Fuchs. “We are pioneering the way for a complete developer data security by introducing major innovations that give security and engineering teams a way of protecting sensitive data and preventing new secrets from being exposed everywhere.”

With Legit, CISOs and their teams can identify, remediate, and prevent the loss of secrets across developer tools, ranging from GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, and Bitbucket to Docker images, artifacts, Confluence pages, and more. Key benefits of Legit secret scanning include:

  • End–to–end SDLC visibility and prioritization: Legit detects secrets beyond the source code to examine all components of the development pipeline. The Legit platform continuously discovers new assets and automatically protects them from loss.
  • Fast and simple administration: with centralized management, Legit makes creating custom policies, managing exceptions and executing secret scanning simple.
  • Complex risk detection and prioritization: Legit’s broad visibility enables the discovery of secrets that might otherwise be missed, including toxic combinations (e.g., those exposed by a user making a repo public). The context Legit provides allows users to prioritize what’s most important, like secret validity checks or adjusted severity levels that consider the criticality and exploitability of the service.
  • Reduce false positives: By leveraging a continuously learning analytics engine, Legit increases the accuracy of secrets detection. In addition, Legit brings a highly productive triage and baseline experience to build exceptions and fine–tune results in no time.
  • Scalable for large development teams: Unlike open source–based tools, Legit built secret scanning to meet large enterprises' performance and scalability requirements.
  • Secrets leak prevention and remediation: Legit enables preventive guardrails on developer endpoints using the Legit CLI and can stop secrets using SCM hooks before code push. In addition, automated workflow can reach developers as part of a pull–request or create Slack messages or Jira tickets to streamline remediation.

For more information, please visit: https://www.legitsecurity.com/.

About Legit Security
Legit Security provides an application security posture management platform that secures application delivery from code to cloud and protects an organization's software supply chain from attacks. The platform’s unified application security control plane and automated SDLC discovery and analysis capabilities provide visibility and security control over rapidly changing environments and prioritize security issues based on context and business criticality to improve security team efficiency and effectiveness.


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 9022728)

Volumen der Patenterteilungen im Jahr 2023 bleibt laut Jahresbericht von Anaqua konstant

BOSTON, Jan. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Anaqua, der führende Anbieter von Technologien für das Management von Innovation und geistigem Eigentum (IP), gab heute seine jährliche Analyse der Daten des US–amerikanischen Patent– und Markenamts USPTO auf Basis seiner führenden Patentanalysesoftware AcclaimIP bekannt. Die Analyse ergab, dass die Patenterteilungen im Jahr 2023 um fast ein halbes Prozent auf 348.774 anstiegen, was einem leichten Anstieg gegenüber 347.408 Patenten im Jahr 2022 entspricht und die US–Patenterteilungen über das Niveau vor 2019 hebt.

Innovativste Unternehmen

Samsung Electronics führt die Liste der innovativsten Unternehmen, berechnet nach der Anzahl der erteilten Patente, mit 10.043 erteilten US–Patenten in Technologiebereichen wie Datenindizierungssysteme, elektronische Werbetechnologie, Elektronik für die Erzeugung erneuerbarer Energien, organische elektrische Festkörperbauelemente und Halbleiterfertigung an. Dies entspricht einem Anstieg von acht Prozent im Vergleich zu 2022.

Zu den fünf innovativsten Unternehmen gehören außerdem IBM mit 4.003 erteilten Patenten, Qualcomm mit 3.852, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company mit 3.442 und LG Corp mit 3.319 erteilten Patenten.

Innovativste Länder

Unternehmen mit Sitz in den USA stehen bei der Gesamtzahl der erteilten US–Patente mit 162.557 an der Spitze aller Länder weltweit, was einem Anstieg von 18 Prozent gegenüber 2022 entspricht. Dabei sind Unternehmen aus der APAC–Region in der Top–Liste der fünf Länder mit von den USA erteilten Patenten weiterhin gut vertreten. Den Daten zufolge liegt Japan an zweiter Stelle (40.960), gefolgt von China (28.979) und Südkorea (24.073). An fünfter Stelle steht Deutschland, das führende europäische Land, mit 13.905 Erteilungen.

Top Innovationsbereiche

Zu den Top–Technologiefeldern nach Anzahl der erteilten Patente gehört das zweite Jahr in Folge die Halbleitertechnologie, gefolgt von virtueller Realität (VR), 5G, künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) und Softwaretechnologie zur Erkennung unbefugter Nutzer. Die Top–Ten–Liste umfasst außerdem die Bereiche Programmsteuerungseinheiten, medizinische Technologien, drahtlose Technologien, Technologien im Zusammenhang mit Chemikalien und Chemie (die zum ersten Mal in den Top Ten auftauchen) sowie Netzwerksicherheits–Technologien.

Bei der Untersuchung der KI–bezogenen Patenten gehören zu den wichtigsten Erfindungsbereichen: maschinelle Lernmodelle, Entwicklung allgemeiner neuronaler Netze, Kombination neuronaler Netze, neuronale Netze für die Bild– und Videoerkennung und das Training neuronaler Netze mit Rückpropagierungs–Verfahren. Die Top–Unternehmen, die im Jahr 2023 in den USA erteilte Patente im Bereich KI erhielten, waren IBM, Samsung Electronics, Alphabet, Microsoft und Amazon.

Shayne Phillips, Director, Analytics Solutions, AcclaimIP, sagt: “Unser jährlicher Patentbericht, der die Daten des USPTO untersucht, zeigt die Widerstandsfähigkeit und Konsistenz der Erfindergemeinschaft und der Unternehmen, die ihre Innovationen schützen wollen. Die Analyse deutet darauf hin, dass die globale Innovation trotz wirtschaftlicher Unsicherheit und Volatilität weitergeht.”

“Wir fühlen uns geehrt, viele der innovativsten Unternehmen weltweit bei der Entwicklung und Verwaltung ihres geistigen Eigentums zu unterstützen, um so bessere, strategische Entscheidungen für ihr Geschäft treffen zu können”, sagte Bob Romeo, CEO von Anaqua. “Unsere AcclaimIP–Lösung hilft unseren Kunden, über 150 Millionen Patente zu durchsuchen, um geistiges Eigentum (IP) zu analysieren, die Patentierbarkeit zu bestimmen und die Patentlandschaft des Wettbewerbs zu bewerten, um so leistungsstarke Patentanalysen in Geschäftserfolg umzusetzen.”

Laden Sie die Infografik von Anaqua herunter, um sich die vollständigen Daten anzusehen. Um mehr über die AcclaimIP–Lösung von Anaqua zu erfahren, besuchen Sie acclaimip.com

Methodologie

Die Daten für diesen Bericht wurden mit dem Anaqua’s AcclaimIP System von Anaqua analysiert, einem Softwaretool für Patentsuche und –analyse, das öffentliche Patentinformationen des USPTO nutzt. Die zur Ermittlung innovativer Unternehmen verwendete Metrik sind veröffentlichte und erteilte Patentanmeldungen in einem 12–Monats–Zeitraum zwischen dem 1. Dezember 2022 und dem 30. November 2023.

Über Anaqua

Anaqua, Inc. ist ein führender Anbieter von integrierten Technologielösungen und Dienstleistungen für das Management von geistigem Eigentum (IP) für Unternehmen und Anwaltskanzleien. Die IP–Management–Softwarelösungen AQX® und PATTSY WAVE® bieten Best–Practice–Workflows mit Big–Data–Analysen und technologiegestützten Dienstleistungen, um eine intelligente Umgebung zu schaffen, die die IP–Strategie informiert, die IP–Entscheidungsfindung ermöglicht und die IP–Abläufe rationalisiert, zugeschnitten auf die Bedürfnisse jedes Segments. Heute nutzen fast die Hälfte der 100 größten US–Patentanmelder und globalen Marken sowie eine wachsende Zahl von Anwaltskanzleien weltweit die Lösungen von Anaqua. Mehr als eine Million IP–Führungskräfte, Anwälte, Rechtsanwaltsgehilfen, Administratoren und Innovatoren nutzen die Plattform für ihre IP–Management–Anforderungen. Der Hauptsitz des Unternehmens befindet sich in Boston, mit weiteren Niederlassungen in den USA, Europa, Asien und Australien. Weitere Informationen finden Sie unter anaqua.com oder auf Anaquas LinkedIn.

Kontakt:
WORDUP PR
+49 89 2 878 878 0
presse@wordup.de


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 9021959)

Annual Anaqua Data Report Finds 2023 Patent Grant Volume Holds Steady

BOSTON, Jan. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Anaqua, the leading innovation and intellectual property (IP) management technology provider, today announced its annual analysis of USPTO data using its advanced AcclaimIP patent analytics software. The analysis found that patent grants grew nearly one–half of one percent to 348,774 in 2023, marking a slight increase compared to 347,408 patents in 2022 placing US grants above pre–2019 levels.

Most Innovative Companies

Samsung Electronics leads the most innovative companies list, calculated by the number of granted patents, with 10,043 US grants (an 8% increase from 2022) in technology areas like data indexing schemes, electronic advertising technology, electronics related to renewable energy generation, organic electric solid–state devices, and plural semiconductor manufacturing.

The other top five most innovative companies were IBM with 4,003 granted patents, Qualcomm with 3,852, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company with 3,442 and LG Corp with 3,319 granted patents.

Most Innovative Countries

US–based companies led all countries for the total number of granted US patents at 162,557, an 18% increase from 2022, with companies in the APAC region continuing to be well represented in the top five list of countries with US–granted patents. According to the data, Japan is in second place (40,960), followed by China (28,979) and South Korea (24,073). In fifth place is Germany, the leading European country, with 13,905 grants.

Top Innovation Areas

The top technology fields based on the most granted patents include semiconductor technology for the second year in a row, followed by virtual reality (VR), 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and software technology related to unauthorized user detection. The rest of the top ten list includes program control unit, medical related, wireless, chemicals and chemistry related (appearing for the first time in the top ten), and network security technologies.

In examining AI–related US grants, the top inventive areas include machine learning models, general neural network development, neural networks combination technology, neural networks for image and video recognition and neural network training using backpropagation processes. The top assignees who received US granted patents in AI in 2023 were IBM, Samsung Electronics, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Shayne Phillips, Director, Analytics Solutions, AcclaimIP, said, “Our annual patent report examining the USPTO’s data shows a resilience and a consistency amongst the inventive community and companies seeking to protect their innovations. The analysis points to continued global innovation despite economic uncertainty and volatility.”

“We are honored to support many of the most innovative companies across the globe develop and manage their intellectual property to make better, strategic decisions about their business,” said Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua. “Our AcclaimIP solution helps customers search over 150 million patents to analyze intellectual property (IP) to determine patentability and assess the competitive patent landscape, ultimately to translate powerful patent analytics into business success.”

Download Anaqua’s infographic to review the full data here. To learn more about Anaqua’s AcclaimIP solution, visit acclaimip.com

Methodology

The data for this report was analyzed by Anaqua’s patent search and analytics software tool AcclaimIP, leveraging public patent information from the USPTO. The metric used to determine innovative organizations is patent applications published and granted applications over a 12–month period between December 1, 2022 and November 30, 2023.

About Anaqua

Anaqua, Inc. is a premier provider of integrated intellectual property (IP) management technology solutions and services for corporations and law firms. Its IP management software solutions, AQX® and PATTSY WAVE®, both offer best practice workflows with big data analytics and tech–enabled services to create an intelligent environment designed to inform IP strategy, enable IP decision–making, and streamline IP operations, tailored to each segment’s need. Today, nearly half of the top 100 U.S. patent filers and global brands, as well as a growing number of law firms worldwide use Anaqua’s solutions. Over one million IP executives, attorneys, paralegals, administrators, and innovators use the platform for their IP management needs. The company’s global operations are headquartered in Boston, with offices across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia. For additional information, please visit anaqua.com, or on Anaqua's LinkedIn.

Company Contact:
Amanda Glagolev
Director, Communications
Anaqua
617–375–5808
aglagolev@anaqua.com


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 9021959)

Le rapport annuel Anaqua indique que le volume des brevets délivrés en 2023 reste stable

BOSTON, 23 janv. 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Anaqua, le fournisseur de technologie de gestion de l'innovation et de la propriété intellectuelle (PI), a publié aujourd'hui son analyse annuelle des données de l'USPTO à l'aide de son logiciel d'analyse de brevets AcclaimIP. L'analyse a révélé que les brevets délivrés ont augmenté de près d'un demi pour cent pour atteindre 348 774 en 2023, marquant une légère augmentation par rapport aux 347 408 brevets en 2022, plaçant les brevets délivrés aux États–Unis au–dessus des niveaux d'avant 2019.

Les entreprises les plus innovantes

Samsung Electronics est en tête de la liste des entreprises les plus innovantes, calculée sur la base du nombre de brevets délivrés, avec 10 043 brevets délivrés aux États–Unis (soit une augmentation de 8 % par rapport à 2022) dans des domaines technologiques tels que les systèmes d'indexation des données, la technologie de la publicité électronique, l'électronique liée à la production d'énergie renouvelable, les semi–conducteurs organiques et la fabrication de dispositifs à semi–conducteur multiples.

Les cinq autres entreprises les plus innovantes sont IBM avec 4 003 brevets délivrés, Qualcomm avec 3 852, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company avec 3 442 et LG Corp avec 3 319 brevets délivrés.

Les pays les plus innovants

Les entreprises basées aux États–Unis sont en tête de tous les pays pour le nombre total de brevets américains délivrés (162 557), soit une augmentation de 18 % par rapport à 2022. Les entreprises de la région APAC continuent d'être bien représentées dans la liste des cinq premiers pays ayant délivré des brevets américains. Selon les données, le Japon occupe la deuxième place (40 960), suivi de la Chine (28 979) et de la Corée du Sud (24 073). La cinquième place est occupée par l'Allemagne, premier pays européen, avec 13 905 brevets.

Principaux domaines d'innovation

Les domaines technologiques les plus importants sur la base du plus grand nombre de brevets délivrés comprennent la technologie des semi–conducteurs pour la deuxième année consécutive, suivie par la réalité virtuelle, la 5G, l'intelligence artificielle (IA) et les technologies logicielles liées à la détection des utilisateurs non autorisés. Le reste de la liste des dix premiers brevets comprend les unités de contrôle des programmes, les technologies médicales, les technologies sans fil, les produits chimiques et les technologies liées à la chimie (qui apparaissent pour la première fois dans le top dix), et les technologies de sécurité des réseaux.

Si l'on examine les subventions américaines liées à l'intelligence artificielle, les principaux domaines d'invention sont les modèles d'apprentissage automatique, le développement général de réseaux neuronaux, les technologies de combinaison de réseaux neuronaux, les réseaux neuronaux pour la reconnaissance d'images et de vidéos et l'entraînement de réseaux neuronaux à l'aide de processus de rétropropagation. Les principaux déposants ayant obtenu des brevets américains dans le domaine de l'IA en 2023 sont IBM, Samsung Electronics, Alphabet, Microsoft et Amazon.

Shayne Phillips, directrice des solutions analytiques chez AcclaimIP, a déclaré : « Notre rapport annuel sur les brevets, qui examine les données de l'USPTO, montre une résilience et une cohérence au sein de la communauté des inventeurs et des entreprises qui cherchent à protéger leurs innovations. L'analyse montre que l'innovation mondiale se poursuit en dépit de l'incertitude et de la volatilité économiques ».

« Nous sommes honorés de soutenir de nombreuses entreprises parmi les plus innovantes à travers le monde pour développer et gérer leur propriété intellectuelle afin de prendre de meilleures décisions stratégiques pour leur entreprise », a déclaré Bob Romeo, PDG d'Anaqua. « Notre solution AcclaimIP aide les clients à rechercher plus de 150 millions de brevets pour analyser la propriété intellectuelle (PI) afin de déterminer la brevetabilité et d'évaluer le paysage concurrentiel des brevets. Le but étant que ces analyses poussées de brevets se traduisent en succès commercial. » 

Téléchargez l'infographie d'Anaqua pour voir les données complètes ici. Pour en savoir plus sur la solution AcclaimIP d'Anaqua, visitez acclaimip.com

Méthodologie

Les données de ce rapport ont été analysées par le système AcclaimIP d'Anaqua, un outil logiciel de recherche et d'analyse de brevets qui exploite les informations publiques sur les brevets de l'USPTO. La métrique utilisée pour déterminer les organisations innovantes est celle des demandes de brevets publiées et des demandes accordées sur une période de 12 mois entre le 1er décembre 2022 et le 30 novembre 2023.

A propos d’Anaqua

Anaqua, Inc. est un fournisseur de premier plan de solutions et services technologiques intégrés de gestion de la propriété intellectuelle (PI). Ses logiciels, AQX® et PATTSY WAVE®, combinent les meilleurs outils pour définir une stratégie de propriété intellectuelle avisée. Ses technologies, qui reposent notamment sur des workflows et des capacités d’analyses avancés, offre un environnement de travail intelligent conçu pour une prendre de meilleures décisions et optimiser les opérations de PI. Aujourd'hui, près de la moitié des 100 premiers déposants de brevets américains et des marques mondiales, ainsi qu'un nombre croissant de cabinets de conseils dans le monde utilisent les solutions Anaqua. Plus d'un million de décideurs, avocats, parajuristes, gestionnaires et innovateurs utilisent la plateforme pour leurs besoins de gestion de la PI. Le siège de la société est situé à Boston, avec des bureaux aux Etats–Unis, en Europe, en Asie et en Australie. Pour de plus amples informations, veuillez consulter le site anaqua.com, ou LinkedIn.

Contact presse :
Amanda Glagolev
Directrice de la communication
Anaqua
+1–617–375–5808
aglagolev@anaqua.com


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 9021959)

Rwanda’s Biodiversity Conservation Gains Momentum With Bird Sounds Recording

Young Rwandan citizen scientists record bird sounds in the forests in a project that plays a pivotal role in the country's bird protection. Credit: Planet Birdsong Foundation

Young Rwandan citizen scientists record bird sounds in the forests in a project that plays a pivotal role in the country’s bird protection. Credit: Planet Birdsong Foundation

By Aimable Twahirwa
NYAMASHEKE, RWANDA, Jan 23 2024 – Claver Ntoyinkima wakes up early in the morning, at least three times a week, and goes into the Nyungwe rainforest to record bird vocalizations.

Ntoyinkima is one of several community members in a remote village in rural southwestern Rwanda who volunteer with a group of scientists to help boost wildlife conservation.

Relying on a voice application installed on his mobile phone, which is connected to a parabolic reflector with a dedicated cable, the 50-year-old tour guide and his team walk long distances every week to collect sounds from various birding hotspots in this area.

“Love for birds is critical when it comes to engaging many young people in this career,” Ntoyinkima told IPS while referring to his second profession of bird sound recording.

To better protect the birds, the veteran tour guide has been able to launch the Nyungwe Birding Club, bringing together about 86 members of local communities living in Gisakura, a remote village located on the outskirts of the Nyungwe rainforest in southwestern Rwanda. Thanks to this mobilization, members of the club, which also consists of 26 young students from primary and secondary schools, were equipped with skills on how to record bird sounds.

The initiative is part of joint efforts by the Planet Birdsong Foundation, an international UK-based charity organization, and the Center of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management at University of Rwanda seeking to connect people with nature through bird sound listening, recording, and audio processing.

Conservation experts believe that birds are important indicators for the biodiversity and health of a habitat where they are sometimes visible but more widely audible. Researchers are now convinced that audio recognition skills are vital for effective monitoring and guiding, especially in forests and wetlands.

“We are engaging youth from rural communities through local bird clubs, site guides, schools, and colleges,” Hilary MacBean, trustee of the Foundation, told IPS.

It is a major task to collect mass data covering the sounds of various species across various birding hotspots in this East African country.

Nyungwe natural reserve is known to be home to 278 species of birds—26 of those are found only in the few forests of the Albertine Rift. The latest scientific estimates show that there are seven other important birding areas in Rwanda, including three wetland areas at Akanyaru (south), Nyabarongo river system (south), and Rugezi swamp (north), where there are efforts to recover the biodiversity from human activities that led to the degradation of these hotspots. The urban wetland in Kigali city has also received massive investment and is radically improving.

“This task requires much practice for people so that they are able to decode all those different bird songs and calls,” Ntoyinkima said.

At present, the first ever Rwandan citizen science initiative, which has been running since 2021, focuses on equipping young students, many from rural communities, with the skills to observe, audio record, and scientifically label birds by their sounds, songs, and calls.

By using affordable sound recording equipment aimed at entry-level citizen scientists, participants are trained in audio-data collection, verification, preparation, and storage for both higher-level scientists and other citizen scientists.  Currently, different existing teams deployed across birding hotspots in Rwanda are divided into categories, including recordists and verifiers.

Experts also point out that using the available dataset with multiple records of the songs and calls of the bird population has been crucial to ensuring the protection of species that are forest-dependent.

Through the “Bioacoustics Recording” initiative, which the foundation and other stakeholders jointly run, MacBean has been involved in mentoring and training young bird guides from Rwanda for international tourism while also educating local guides and students about bird sounds.

Hilary MacBean of Planet Birdsong Foundation has been involved in mentoring and training Rwandan young bird guides for international tourism while bringing awareness and knowledge of bird sounds to local guides and students. Credit: Planet Birdsong Foundation

Hilary MacBean of the Planet Birdsong Foundation has been involved in mentoring and training Rwandan young bird guides for international tourism while bringing awareness and knowledge of bird sounds to local guides and students. Credit: Planet Birdsong Foundation

“Key focus has been on equipping communities with skills on how to work with bioacoustics data collected in the field as a means to identify bird species in the recordings with confidence,” she said in an exclusive interview.

During the implementation phase, data collection is done by using a smart phone with downloadable free apps and a ParaChirp, an acoustic parabolic reflector designed for educational use to promote learning about birds and product design.  The technology focuses mainly on individual bird songs and calls collected in their natural or semi-natural habitat.

The latest official estimates by the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) show that Rwanda boasts more than 703 bird species, making it one of the countries with the highest concentration of bird populations in Africa.

However, Protais Niyigaba, the Nyungwe Forest National Park’s manager, told IPS that much effort has been put into providing migratory birds with safe habitats and breeding sites.

“These solutions with available recording data are currently helping to understand the routes of these migratory birds and make sure visitors are able to locate them easily by sound,” Niyigaba said.

The project had uploaded 226 recordings as of the time of the Foundation’s 2023 audit report, with 37 of those being in national parks. The number of recordings is constantly growing, with multiple records of the songs and calls of about 120 bird species across Rwanda.

By December 2024, the Foundation has set a goal of generating 275 recordings, including 75 bird sounds, from existing national parks across Rwanda. The target set for 2025 is 300 species, according to official projections.

“We create music from bird sound and, in the Rwandan context, focus on the community benefits of citizen science, bird sound collection for scientific monitoring, and building the identification skills of tourist guides,” MacBean said.

With this integration of bird sound recordings to protect and preserve these species and their habitats, stakeholders focus on labeling the collected data so that their identification, locational and time data, behavioral data, and habitat data are all recorded. The sounds are then validated by assigned verifiers, processed, and stored for use in science.

Recordings generated by Planet Birdsong’s citizen scientists are stored globally with e-bird, and researchers are collaborating with the Macaulay Library at Cornell University to ensure access to locally recorded bird sounds for both citizen scientists and specialists.

For the specific case of Rwanda, data collected in Rwanda is also supplied to the Rwanda Biodiversity Information System developed by the Centre of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management at University of Rwanda for use in local natural science. Yet these innovations are playing pivotal roles in Rwanda’s bird protection, and some researchers believe that maintaining data availability is essential for effective bird biodiversity conservation.

Professor Beth Kaplin, a prominent conservation scientist based in Rwanda, told IPS that getting local researchers, students, and youth involved in data collection and management is important to developing a sense of ownership and stewardship of the data recording for bird sounds.

Despite current efforts, conservation experts point out that limited funding to support people and pay their fieldwork expenses is another major challenge affecting project implementation since the majority of local residents work mainly on a volunteer basis. Some individuals engaged in the project also have problems with equipment such as phones and PCs, plus the cost of the internet.

Dr Marie Laure Rurangwa, a Rwandan female conservation scientist, told IPS that one of the challenges facing people engaged in this activity is much about processing time with much editing [of recordings] and the skillsets needed in terms of sound recognition for different bird species.

Rurangwa is a co-author of the latest peer review study showing how land use change (modification from primary forest to other land use types) has affected bird communities within Nyungwe forest in Rwanda

“Access to some of these remote birding hotspots has been another challenge for recordists because of limited resources and a lack of appropriate equipment to reach these remote areas,” Rurangwa points out.

But in Gisakura, a remote village nestled on the outskirts of Nyungwe Forest, Ntoyinkima and his team are trying to use affordable means in their field recording by splitting into small groups of five people each.

Before their deployment to various sites inside and outside the forest, each group has to travel several kilometers to reach the selected birding hotspots.

As they walk quietly along a narrow trail and water flows beneath their feet, the team has to stop sometimes to better identify birds through their vocalizations.

Yet most trained people are able to capture data and generate robust, sound recognition results. Expert verifiers are sometimes asked to provide support when some recordists are stuck for identification or to confirm when in doubt.

“These young people are still volunteering here, but in most cases, the majority of them end up being hired as tour guides because they are well trained in bird vocalizations,” Ntoyinkima said.

 

Credit: Visuals for video are by Aimable Twahirwa and Planet Birdsong Foundation

IPS UN Bureau Report

 


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Matchmaking for Green Cities? Accelerating Climate Finance in Urban Areas

Credit: ESCAP

By Liam O Connor, Francisco Martes Porto Macedo and Omar Siddique
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan 23 2024 – Asia and the Pacific is home to 54 per cent of the world’s urban population, who are disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (ESCAP, 2023; IPCC, 2022). Why then, do climate action projects in cities commonly face delays in implementation?

Crucial new developments in mitigation and adaptation including: renewable energy, public transport, and nature-based solutions, are needed to safeguard the lives of billions, yet many struggle to secure sufficient funding. In fact, studies estimate that, globally, there is a $6-$12 trillion gap in annual funding for climate and resilience investment (Buchner and others, 2023).

Of the funding that does come in, only 10 per cent goes to adaptation projects (Negreiros and others, 2021), highlighting a real need to address human vulnerability in cities. So how can cities draw from greater sources of private and public investments for climate action?

Perhaps one solution is matchmaking – but not the kind you’re thinking of.

Urban-Act is an international project funded by the Government of Germany’s International Climate Initiative (IKI) with ESCAP as an implementing partner that seeks to accelerate access to urban climate finance. Urban-Act facilitates project preparation for cities, helping move their projects along the urban climate finance value chain so they can attract public or private finance.

This is followed by city climate finance matchmaking, where cities are connected with potential investors through in-person events or online platforms. This process is explored in detail in ESCAP’s 2023 working paper, Enabling Innovative Investments.

The paper highlights how project preparation and matchmaking can unlock the potential of public-private partnerships (PPPs) to bridge the climate finance gap and accelerate climate action in cities. However, several challenges must be addressed.

These challenges include:

    • Insufficient project preparation: cities often lack the capacity and resources to prepare ‘bankable’ climate projects that investors are willing to fund.
    • Limited reporting on success: very few matchmaking programmes report on the success rates of the projects they fund, making it hard to evaluate and improve matchmaking support.
    • Limited replicability and scalability of interventions: as cities all vary in their levels of development, political and economic systems, and local geographies, the support they require varies too, which can be hard to replicate elsewhere.

The same paper highlights some potential solutions for providing cities with more effective support. As investors often avoid climate projects due to large upfront costs and higher perceived risks, cities can seek blended finance between private and public investors, using public grant money to prepare well-developed projects, making them attractive to private investors due to smaller ticket sizes (the amount of capital for each share) who can then fund later stage implementation (see figure 1 to visualize project value chain).

Another solution involves financial aggregation. Here matchmaking programmes can consider working with multiple cities with similar projects to better replicate interventions, and/or they could compile many small projects from one city into one portfolio, increasing funding as they leverage of economies of scale and reduced transaction costs.

Enabling Innovative Investments (2023) lists a series of recommendations for successfully employing these solutions and ultimately enabling effective city matchmaking. They range from encouraging impact assessments for learning from mistakes to engaging in investor consultation early to align projects with investor criteria.

• To achieve blended financing:

    o Engage in private investor consultation at early stages of project design
    o Ensure projects are aligned with national strategies.
    o Make use of online platforms such as CDP Matchmaker, SOURCE, or CI Portal.

• While financial institutions should support cities by:

    o Providing lists of project-types they are interested in funding over the next 12-18 months.

• To valorize financial aggregation:

    o Consider a ‘city cluster approach’ to increase replicability of interventions
    o Improve scalability by compiling several city projects into one portfolio.

• To improve the effectiveness of matchmaking efforts in the long term:

    o Promote capacity building to equip local governments with the expertise and leadership for implementing projects and securing private finance
    o Adopt an impact assessment framework for monitoring and evaluation to tailor programmes for maximum effectiveness

Despite the uneven split of finances that goes towards mitigation projects, current trends show we are straying away from the 1.5°C warming target globally agreed upon at the Paris Agreement in 2015, emphasizing just how important it is that we accelerate climate finance in cities, particularly for adapting to the adverse effects of climate change that are expected to increase with time.

Projects such as Urban-Act that make use of project preparation support and city matchmaking, along with the recommendations developed in the Enabling Innovative Investments (2023) paper, can help bridge the significant investment gap for climate action, making way for more sustainable and climate resilient cities.

Liam O Connor, is Intern, Environment and Development Division, ESCAP; Francisco Martes Porto Macedo is Senior Program Associate, Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, Climate Policy Initiative; Omar Siddique is Economic Affairs Officer, ESCAP.

IPS UN Bureau

 


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