Huawei and the International Union for Conservation of Nature expanded their Tech4Nature global partnership at the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress held in Abu Dhabi, with a series of forums, project showcases, and the inaugural Tech4Nature Awards designed to highlight the growing role of digital technology in addressing conservation challenges at scale. The partnership, which launched in 2020 and has since run 11 flagship projects across 8 countries, represents a structured effort to apply artificial intelligence, sensor networks, and data analytics to some of the world’s most pressing biodiversity and ecosystem protection challenges.
Among the projects highlighted at the congress, Tech4Nature China stood out for its use of audio monitoring devices and artificial intelligence analytics to build a voiceprint database of Hainan gibbons, of which only 42 individuals remain in the world. By identifying individual family groups, lone animals, and critical habitat zones through data-driven analysis, the project aims to guide repopulation efforts and inform habitat restoration strategies. In Brazil, the initiative is deploying low-cost sensors on Marajo Island to study the impact of climate change on mangrove ecosystems and the factors affecting mangrove crab populations, providing scientific data to underpin conservation decisions in a critically important coastal habitat. Other active projects in the second phase of Tech4Nature include efforts in Mexico to protect jaguars in the Dzilam de Bravo State Reserve, in Türkiye to monitor umbrella species including wild goats and fallow deer as indicators of overall ecosystem health, in Kenya to protect coral reefs and deter illegal fishing, and in Spain’s Barcelona Province to study the impact of human leisure activity on Bonelli’s eagle populations.
The congress also marked the first presentation of the Tech4Nature Awards, with winners selected by an international panel of technology and conservation experts across three categories. Distant Imagery Solutions won the Tech Innovation category for its work on democratising climate technology for ecosystem recovery. African People and Wildlife won the NatureTech Stewards category for a community-driven approach to resilient grassland conservation. The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation won the Species Conservation category for its work protecting endangered Olive Ridley turtles along the Odisha coast in India. International Union for Conservation of Nature Director General Grethel Aguilar noted that the award-winning solutions demonstrate how technology, when placed in the hands of conservationists and communities, can drive tangible change for both nature and people. The World Conservation Congress takes place every four years and convened this year around themes including scaling up conservation action, reducing climate overshoot risks, delivering on equity, transitioning to nature-positive economies, and fostering disruptive innovation in conservation leadership.
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