Ai researcher rescues 60 years of critical conservation lessons from shuttered usaid database

When the Trump administration closed public access to a massive $30 billion database containing six decades of U.S. development project records, valuable conservation lessons spanning 150,000 projects nearly vanished forever. Fortunately, former USAID employee and AI scientist Lindsey Moore acted quickly to preserve this institutional knowledge before it disappeared.

Moore used advanced artificial intelligence technology to analyze the entire Development Experience Clearinghouse database, which housed detailed records of environmental, economic, and social projects administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development across the globe. Through her tech startup DevelopMetrics, she’s now working to ensure these hard-won lessons don’t get lost again—a chronic problem that has plagued conservation efforts for decades.

The rescued data reveals troubling patterns in conservation project failures that have repeated throughout the past 60 years. According to Moore, these recurring problems aren’t primarily technological but institutional, often stemming from inadequate engagement with local communities. “Most of the work of development happens in these air-conditioned rooms,” Moore explains, noting that while fieldwork is encouraged, it’s often considered too expensive.

This preservation effort highlights a critical challenge facing the conservation community: how to retain and apply lessons learned from past projects. DevelopMetrics’ AI model can analyze not only the USAID database but also other public databases that risk deletion or neglect, potentially transforming how conservationists access and learn from historical project data to improve future environmental initiatives.