Project summary

MAMBO: new technologies for better biodiversity monitoring across Europe

The MAMBO project (Modern Approaches to the Monitoring of Biodiversity) was a research project funded by Horizon Europe (Grant Agreement No. 101060639), carried out from September 2022 to August 2026 and coordinated by Aarhus University (Denmark). It brought together ten European partners with the aim of modernising biodiversity monitoring by combining new technologies, citizen science, and ecological methods.

MAMBO combines artificial intelligence, image recognition, acoustic analysis, automated sensors, drones, satellites, and LiDAR to collect and analyse large volumes of data on species and habitats. These approaches are tested across different European sites and compared with traditional monitoring methods to assess their reliability, cost-effectiveness, and potential for large-scale deployment.

Pl@ntNet’s role

Pl@ntNet contributes its expertise in automated plant recognition, citizen-generated data, and species distribution modelling. Its identification engine, models, API, and georeferenced observations are used to develop new approaches to vegetation monitoring.

MAMBO extends Pl@ntNet beyond the identification of individual plants. The project develops methods to analyse photographs of vegetation quadrats or plots, enabling several species to be identified in the same image and supporting the characterisation of plant communities.

These observations can then be combined with satellite and environmental data to map species and habitats. Work carried out within MAMBO also contributes to the development of GeoPl@ntNet, which can estimate the potential distribution of species and help identify areas where additional observations would be particularly valuable.

Automating monitoring without replacing expertise

The project also explores AI and automated sensors for detecting plants and animals, including through camera-based monitoring and acoustic analysis. These technologies can facilitate the monitoring of groups that are difficult to survey at large scales, such as birds, bats, and pollinating insects.

MAMBO is not intended to replace naturalist expertise, but rather to provide tools that can automate certain tasks, analyse larger volumes of data, and extend monitoring to under-documented species and territories.

Open tools for conservation

Tested across a range of European ecosystems, MAMBO’s methods follow an open science and FAIR data approach. They contribute to biodiversity monitoring needs linked to the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the Birds and Habitats Directives, and the Natura 2000 network.

For Pl@ntNet, MAMBO represents an important step towards large-scale plant biodiversity monitoring: from identifying individual plants, to analysing plant communities, and ultimately mapping species and habitats.

MAMBO News

MAMBO: Where can I find more information about its achievements?

The MAMBO project officially came to an end in August 2026, following three years of research carried out under the Horizon Europe programme. Although the research activities have now been completed, all project results remain publicly available. The official MAMBO website brings together the main resources produced by the consortium, including project news, demonstrators, case studies, scientific publications, public deliverables, developed tools, and communication materials. All of these resources can be accessed HERE.

The project’s final results and overall outcomes are also available on the European Commission’s CORDIS platform, which provides an overview of the project’s objectives, partners, key achievements, and final reports. The dedicated MAMBO CORDIS page is available HERE.

Key partners