Roszapovedtsentr of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia has created a photo bank of the entire reserve system of the country based on Yandex Cloud technologies

2024: Launch of a photo bank with professional pictures

Roszapovedtsentr of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia and the Technology Center for Society Yandex Cloud, together with the Center for Spatial Research (Geointellect), launched a photo bank with professional photographs obtained in nature reserves and national parks of Russia. Yandex Cloud announced this on December 9, 2024. All photos can be published for free on social networks and media materials, as well as used in other educational and scientific projects - for this, when downloading a photo, it is enough to accept the terms of the offer agreement, and when using photos, indicate the author and the source of the images. The neural network built into the photo bank automatically detects animal species in the pictures and simplifies the search for the necessary photos.

The joint project aims to introduce technology into wildlife research. Professional photographers can upload images to the service, and users can search and select pictures by keywords. To use the service, you need to register with Yandex ID.

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The reserve system is 108 reserves, 72 national parks and 65 reserves, each corner of which is unique. The task of the project is to collect as many photographs of the pristine nature of Russia as possible on one resource and give everyone the opportunity to use these photographs for eco-welfare and scientific purposes, "said Daria Matsuk, head of the Roszapovedtsentr of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia.

To develop a solution based on artificial intelligence, the Yolo 11 neural network and a neural network for recognizing different species of animals were used, developed in 2023 by Yandex Cloud and SHAD students for scientists at Saylyugem National Park. Images are processed and stored on the Yandex Cloud. The neural network automatically detects and tags photos of animals and birds from 49 orders. With the help of technology, you can quickly find in pictures even representatives of such rare species as manul, Amur tiger, snow leopard, red wolf, bison, musk deer, sterol, bustard and others. The best neural network recognizes the Far Eastern leopard, Amur tiger and badger - the accuracy is 90% or higher. The use of neural networks significantly speeds up the search for the necessary images and helps scientists in research work. For example, based on the images obtained for each individual of such rare species as the Amur tiger and the snow leopard, scientists make a kind of passport, since the stripes and spots in each beast are different, like human fingerprints. Comparison of materials from camera traps allows you to track the movements of each animal, the state of its health, cases of interaction with other individuals.

We had a difficult but interesting task: it was necessary to make an analogue of the well-known system on the cloud platform in a short time, in which many look at examples of photographs of repairs and furniture, and even take into account the licensing features of photographers, role models, linking to an interactive map and much more, - said Denis Strukov, director of the Center for Spatial Research (Geointellect), developer of the photobank platform.

Now every photographer can contribute to the creation of a digital beauty repository of protected nature and the popularization of environmental protection by uploading to the site their pictures taken in specially protected natural areas of the country.

The photo bank has already presented a large-scale series of photographs of one of the leading wildlife photographers and experts of the reserve system of Russia - Igor Shpilenka. He made this series as part of the two-year photo expedition "Reserved Russia: from Kola to Kamchatsky, "during which he crossed the country twice in a specially equipped all-terrain vehicle: in 2022 - from north to south, and in 2023 - from west to east, visiting over 50 specially protected natural areas of federal significance and capturing their beauty not only from the ground, but also from the air.