Nature needs us, now.
ACF Investigates is a digital community of people just like you helping us to uncover threats to nature and climate by collecting data on a smartphone or desktop.
Ready to start investigating?
Before you get into the real tasks, we’d like you to complete a few practice tasks to make sure you’re comfortable with your investigation skills. We’ll let you know how you did after you complete each task. You’ve got this!
How it works
ACF Investigates gives everyone the chance to uncover habitat destruction. Our goal is to identify every habitat destruction event in 1 million hectares across the country. By identifying clearing, you’ll be helping us find new leads and focus our investigative efforts.
All you have to do is:
- Register! Signing up takes 2 minutes and it means we won’t accidentally show you the same image twice.
- Compare two aerial images of the same habitat in 2023 vs 2024.
- Spot the difference.
- Click on the areas where you see land clearing. If you don’t spot clearing, we want to know that too!
The real-life impact of your support
By taking part in ACF Investigates, whether it’s a quick task on your lunch break, a few tasks on your commute, or 100 tasks in your spare time – you're helping us to uncover nature destruction.
Australia is a world leader in nature destruction, and species extinction. We are seeing the homes of our precious wildlife bulldozed to the ground, pushing species to the brink of extinction. The government promised no more extinctions, yet the threatened species list is only growing, and some species are teetering on the edge of no return.
Australia is a big place, and it’s too easy for bulldozers to destroy critical habitat unseen and undocumented. But together, we can make a difference.
By taking part in ACF Investigates, you are giving our wildlife a chance.
Stats from ACF Investigates 2023
2100
Investigators took part
3,681,000
Hectares of at-risk native habitat scanned
1,051
Tasks submitted
2,045
Locations across Australia analysed
What is the ACF Investigations Unit?
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Investigations Unit uncovers unethical, illegal and damaging behaviour, working to protect our environment and the places we love. Our work has exposed polluters, advocated for policy change to preserve habitat, and more. You can see more of our work here.
What is ACF Investigates?
ACF Investigates is a digital community of people just like you, working together to uncover threats to our nature and climate by using devices to gather and classify data. After an extremely successful inaugural investigation in 2023, we are excited to be back in 2024.
Do I have to be in Australia to join ACF Investigates?
No! Lots of people all over the world love our wildlife and precious places. Everyone is welcome to join.
Do I need to download an app?
Nope. All you need is a mobile or computer. This tool is designed to work on most devices and browsers.
Help! I want help signing up, using the website or changing my password.
No worries! Give us a call anytime between 9am to 5pm Australian Eastern time on 1800 223 669 (free within Australia) or +61 3 9345 1111.
Why do I need to register?
Registering makes your contribution count. By being able to identify each volunteer as unique, we can make sure we don’t show you the same image twice. It also means you can discuss images in our forum and keep track of your stats. Your personal details won’t be shared with other investigators —the only thing they’ll see is your display name, which you choose.
Will you be doing more crowdsourced investigations in the future?
We hope so! This is our second year running ACF Investigates and we’re hoping for many more in the future.
Like everything we do at ACF, we can’t build more projects without help from people like you. Donate now to power this crucial work.
Wait, I still have questions!
View our full FAQs page here.