Yorkshire’s Escrick Park Estate launches smart tech pilot to advance biodiversity

Two York organisations are joining forces to advance conservation efforts in the region through bioacoustic technology.

York-based agri-tech firm, AgriSound, has partnered with Escrick Park Estate, a leading land and conservation business located in the Vale of York, for a two-year pilot scheme to monitor pollinator activity.

The project will see nine of AgriSound’s Polly™ acoustic devices installed across the 7,000-acre Estate to collect real-time pollinator data from farmland, woodland and the Skipwith ecological corridor – a key biodiversity area, to measure baseline data prior to habitat creation to be delivered through Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), between the heathland of Skipwith Common National Nature Reserve and surrounding wildlife areas.

A live data dashboard with daily pollinator activity insights will enable Escrick Park Estate to identify trends and demonstrate how smart technology can support habitat improvement schemes and the wider recovery of pollinator populations across the North Yorkshire region.

Pollinators, such as bees, are vital to ecosystems and food production, contributing to around 75 per cent of global food crops and an estimated $500 billion to the global economy. In 2025, 35 per cent of pollinator species are at risk of extinction, meaning their decline poses a significant threat to environmental and agricultural resilience worldwide.

Jake Woodward, Business Development Lead at AgriSound, said: “We’re proud to be working with Escrick Park Estate to showcase how Yorkshire-made innovation can make a global impact. Our technology helps land managers worldwide turn pollinator’s sound data into smart, sustainable decisions that strengthen the biodiversity across their sites to help conservation efforts and improve yields.”

Mark Hewitt, Conservation Lead at Escrick Park Estate, added: “We’re passionate about using data to guide our conservation work, especially to boost the sustainability of our long-term land management practices. Partnering with AgriSound allows us to better understand the health of pollinators across the Estate and take targeted action to protect them.”