Huawei-Kenya and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) launched a Tech4Nature project to monitor and protect coral reef and biodiversity in Kenya’s Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Park and Reserve.
Aligned with Huawei’s TECH4ALL initiative and the IUCN Green List, the three-year project aims to strengthen the monitoring and management efficacy of the protected area. Located on the southern coast of Kenya, Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Park and Reserve face several nature conservation challenges.
Among the conservation obstacles are illegal fishing and insufficient human resources to effectively patrol the area, lack of remote monitoring of the reserve’s three coral islands coupled with pressures created by tourism, as the fringing reefs are popular diving sites, limited community awareness of the importance of reef and biodiversity protection, and insufficient communications network infrastructure for underpinning tech-driven monitoring.
Speaking during the launch, Huawei-Kenya’s media director, Khadija Mohammed Ahmed, underscored the importance of leveraging technology and innovation to solve pressing global challenges.
“Climate change and biodiversity loss are threatening our planet’s health and placing our longevity in a precarious position. However, advances in technology are offering humanity and our home a lifeline. Innovative thinking and smart solutions are already helping to mitigate some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems,” said Khadija.
“The technology we are bringing here is crucial because it is the first one that will be used in Kenya’s marine conservation. It will be the first monitoring instrument for data capture and analysis in the marine protected area. It is also an opportunity to help the park to obtain green list certification to support the sustainability agenda that most tourists like and as well as to ensure our future generation enjoys the benefits of the marine parks,” said IUCN Kenya Country Office Representative Innocent Kabenga.
Employing technology
AI trained to recognize specific target species by sight or sound will provide real-time data-driven insights into the behaviours, populations, and distribution of biodiversity in the reserve and reef ecosystem. The system will also be able to identify boats used for illegal fishing and send alerts for rangers to intervene in near real-time.
A digital power solution and improved network connectivity covering the park and watchtower will enable the rapid transmission of collected data to a cloud server for analysis by AI.
The project will be implemented in partnership with KWS and the Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI). Based on the project’s data-driven insights, the Tech4Nature partners will be able to develop targeted conservation measures for the reserve.
“For us to deliver our mandate of protecting and conserving our wildlife, both terrestrial and in the marine ecosystems, you have to understand your resources very well. We are partnering with Huawei and IUCN to deploy underwater cameras to acquire some data on marine mammals, corals, and fisheries to make informed decisions. The advantage of this technology is that it can be deployed in a wider area that we couldn’t patrol every single day to get data for day and night for us to make good, informed decisions,” noted Senior Assistant Director, Coast Conservation Area-Kenya Wildlife Service, Adan Kala.
The site will also be assessed against the IUCN Green List Standard, with the goal being that the reserve obtains Green List certification.
