Porini Foundation
Alpine ibex in the Swiss National Park

Porini Foundation · Swiss-born · Nature-led

Innovation
for nature.

Porini Foundation brings conservationists, educators and technologists together to test practical new ways of protecting species and places.

Explore our workSupport the mission
Swiss National Park · Tech4Nature flagship partner site
Discover
2017Foundation registered in Fribourg
6Continents in the Kigali collection
24Species across three published collections
4Published Challenge winners in 2026

Porini Play

Play. Learn. Come back tomorrow.

Four short daily games make climate and biodiversity knowledge a habit—no account, progress stays on this device. Ready for more? The Porini app (formerly SpecDex), Porini Stewards and the ClimateActions Arcade take you outdoors.

Play now

Why Porini exists

Nature needs more than good intentions.

It needs credible conservation, fresh sources of support, and tools that make complex evidence useful to the people doing the work.

Porini is a Swiss, tax-exempt foundation with a precise purpose: to advance innovative technologies for nature and environmental protection—and for the people whose lives are connected to them.

Nature firstTechnology is a means, never the mission.
Built togetherConservation actors shape every useful solution.
Claims you can inspectStatus, limits and sources stay visible.
Commercial-register purpose

A field-tested portfolio

Where conservation and innovation met.

Each story below is grounded in an official partner or programme source. Results are described at the level the evidence supports.

Ibex in the Swiss National ParkSwitzerland · 2018–
Third-party verifiedIUCN Green List

Raising the bar for protected areas in Switzerland.

IUCN appointed Porini as its Green List implementation partner in Switzerland in 2018. Porini later helped guide the Swiss National Park to become the country’s first Green List site and joined IUCN, the park and Huawei Switzerland in the Tech4Nature alpine flagship partnership. Announced workstreams included AI analysis of roughly 1.5 million camera-trap images and digital validation for climate-contribution certificates.

2018 IUCN announcementTech4Nature partnership
Project documentedGlobal · 2022

Eight protected areas. Six continents. One new funding experiment.

Nature Collectibles expanded from the Seychelles to the Kigali collection: eight species connected to eight protected and conserved areas on six continents. Madagascar and Peru followed, bringing the published portfolio to three collections and 24 species cards; Peru’s environmental authority presented its collection at COP15.

Kigali project recordPeru at COP15Explore 24 species
InfrastructureSince 2018

A low-energy ledger designed for conservation.

Porini set up an Ethereum-compatible sustainability chain using permissioned validation instead of energy-intensive mining. The Foundation reports nodes below 50 watts and compensates the remaining operational footprint.

Energy and carbon figures are Foundation-reported; this site does not present them as an independent lifecycle assessment.

Technical description

The “Million Dollar Bird”

The bird that made conservation history.

In July 2021, Nature Seychelles—supported by IUCN and Porini—turned the endangered Seychelles magpie-robin into the world’s first digital species for conservation. Not the bird itself: 59 digital twins, one for each identified living bird on Cousin Island at launch.

Seychelles magpie-robin, the first digital species for conservation
Copsychus sechellarumSeychelles magpie-robin
59digital twins representing known birds
70%sold within three weeks
2021launched as the first digital species
64countries generated marketplace interest

Early-result figures are reported by conservation partner Nature Seychelles.

Read the results
CNN

Seen around the world

A conservation experiment becomes a global story.

CNN covered the launch; Nature Seychelles also documented follow-on coverage by BBC and the World Economic Forum. Watch the original CNN report.

Original CNN pageBirdLife launch reportWEF video
Seychelles magpie-robin featured in CNN’s reportWatch the CNN reportCNN report · July 2021
Misty green forest

Nature heroes, big and small

Let the next generation lead.

The Porini Challenge invites school classes in cycles 1–3 to create or share a nature project, document what others can learn from it, and compete for implementation funding.

2027 round · current call details on the official siteFour publicly documented winners in 2026
Visit the ChallengeSubmit a project
Winning projects2026
Switzerland · Düdingen

Flowering schoolyard—meadow instead of lawn

Class 8Hb

Switzerland · St. Antoni

School garden

Cycles 1 and 2

Switzerland · Wünnewil

School garden

Cycle 3

Namibia · Wild Kids Academy

School in the bush

Grades 0–9

See the published projects

Technology with an honest label

Use the tool the conservation problem needs.

Porini works with Operal AG, a separate Swiss commercial technology company. Two projects are documented joint builds; the others show relevant capability in the partner ecosystem.

Live demonstratorPilotPrototype
The Porini app (formerly SpecDex) on a smartphone
Live · built together

Species literacy · Citizen science

The Porini app turns a phone into a nature scanner.

Photograph a real plant or animal, let AI identify its ecological traits, and add it to a collection of biology-grounded cards. The four-language, zero-install app uses pseudonyms, hides rare-species locations and offers a class-only mode for minors.

  • No blockchain or NFTs
  • Anonymised local observations
  • DE · FR · IT · EN
Case studyTry the live app
Porini Trees satellite-monitoring demonstrator
Phase-0 · built together

Tree stewardship · Namibia

Porini Trees explores evidence at the level of one tree.

The demonstrator assigns persistent IDs to trees and explores a donor-facing observation log with source and confidence metadata. Current tree detection uses real imagery; history, species and growth remain modelled.

Prototype: no payments are processed and no carbon credit is issued.

Read the caveated caseOpen demo
Satellite forest analysis with a canopy-height layer
Operal capability

Forestry · GeoAI

Ask Your Forest makes Earth observation legible.

A plain-language agent turns Swiss satellite and LiDAR data into maps and 3D terrain. It can calculate vegetation, water and disturbance indices and disclose the source, period and method for each layer.

Operal work shown as partner capability; not presented as a Porini programme.

Explore the case
Ask the Ranger pilot shown on a smartphone
Operal pilot demo

Protected landscapes · Visitor safety

Ask the Ranger puts live rules in a visitor’s language.

Designed for the protected Lombachalp landscape, the 20+ language pilot combines weather, transport, daylight, terrain and protected-zone data while retaining no per-visitor account data.

Pilot demo, not a live public service or a Porini Foundation achievement.

Explore the pilot
Heat and drought monitoring dashboard for a Swiss municipality
Operal capability

Climate adaptation · Open data

Heat & Drought Radar makes local climate stress visible.

The tool builds a current heat-and-drought view for any Swiss municipality: temperature anomaly against the 1991–2020 norm, heat days, precipitation, water balance and official vegetation and drought layers.

Sources named by Operal include ERA5, swisstopo, BAFU and MeteoSwiss; shown as partner capability.

Explore the case
ClimateActions participation app displayed on a smartphone

Partnerships · Climate participation

From climate intention to local participation.

Porini Foundation’s engagement in ClimateActions focuses on partnerships, international rollout and careful adaptation—helping a working product become a locally owned programme.

6 min read
Read the ClimateActions story

The journey so far

From standards to species to schools.

A verified timeline of Porini’s work and the experiments it has helped move forward.

2017

A Swiss foundation is established

Porini Foundation enters the Fribourg Commercial Register on 20 October with a non-profit purpose: advancing innovative technologies for nature, environmental protection and people.

Source
2018

Green List implementation begins

IUCN names Porini Foundation as implementation partner for the IUCN Green List in Switzerland. Porini also establishes its energy-efficient sustainability chain.

Source
2018

A bison-community pilot in Romania

Porini joins WWF Romania, ETH Zurich and other partners in an exploratory initiative connecting wildlife monitoring and local economic incentives around reintroduced European bison. Public evidence documents the pilot and its aims—not quantified outcomes.

Source
2021

From the Alps to the Seychelles

The Swiss National Park becomes Switzerland’s first IUCN Green List site and a Tech4Nature alpine flagship. In July, partners launch the Seychelles magpie-robin as the first Digital Nature Collectible.

Source
2022

A conservation marketplace spans six continents

Eight protected and conserved areas from six continents join the Kigali collection, followed by dedicated collections for Madagascar and Peru.

Source
2025–26

The Porini Challenge reaches schools

A new education campaign invites school classes to design practical nature projects. Four 2026 winning projects are publicly documented in Switzerland and Namibia.

Source
2026

New tools connect learning with field evidence

With Operal AG, Porini develops the Porini app (formerly SpecDex) for species literacy and citizen science, and a Phase-0 tree-monitoring demonstrator for the Zambezi Region.

Source

People & governance

A small foundation with a connective role.

Porini’s leadership brings together conservation practice, education, technology and international protected-area experience.

Active Swiss foundationFribourg · UID CHE-174.560.255 · registered 20 October 2017
Registry record
ME

Mia Eyholzer

President of the Foundation Board

Educator and advocate for intergenerational nature stewardship; president since 2025.

RE

Roman Eyholzer

CEO & Foundation Board

Wildlife biologist, IUCN WCPA member and Green List practitioner; CEO since 2017.

TC

Toni Caradonna

CTO & Foundation Board

Physicist and technology lead focused on low-energy blockchain and digital conservation tools.

JH

James Edward Hardcastle

Foundation Board

Conservation and protected-area finance specialist; listed on the current Foundation Board.

Roles reflect the Foundation website and current Swiss commercial-register record. Team source

Sources & transparency

Follow the evidence.

This page prioritises official Foundation, partner, government and conservation-organisation sources. Prototype limitations and self-reported results are labelled in the copy.

Foundation & governance4 sources
Conservation work8 sources
Technology partner work5 sources

Research reviewed 24 August 2026. Links and programme status can change.