Nairobi — Huawei Technologies has ramped up its support for animal conservation programs in Africa by roping in its 5G technology to facilitate the monitoring of endangered animals. The initiative will see the firm deploy cutting-edge cameras and 5G network to capture and transmit high quality, real-time images of animals in their natural habitat.
This practice is expected to not only open up conservation programs to newer ways of preserving endangered animal species, but will also provide tourists with alternative modes of experiencing new destinations.
To do so, Huawei is using its 5G technology platform for livestream broadcasting for service providers to illustrate its capability for monitoring animal movements to enable conservationists initiate reactive measures in cases where they face any dangers.
The firm has invested more than Kshs 100 million in animal conservation programs in Kenya over the last decade and a half.
“We have shown the technological capability by successfully live streaming the endangered African Penguin in its natural habitat at the Boulders Beach in Cape Town,” said conservationist and wildlife TV presenter Lauren Arthur,” a move that she added, provides opportunity for an innovative yet immersive travel experience to tourist in a post-pandemic environment and a digital-first experience of a destination.
5G technology, she noted, is proving pivotal in allowing conservationists to monitor animal colonies across the African continent. Using a 5G camera, conservation experts may watch animals at every movement and help prevent negative incidents like bee attacks.
The African Penguin, a bird that is native to South Africa’s Cape Coast, is listed as ‘Endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on its Red List of Threatened Species.
In the future, 5G won’t only enrich people’s digital lives, but will also bring real benefits and change to humans, companies, society, and the natural world,” she added. 5G can be especially beneficial in Africa’s goal of achieving a digital economy. She pointed out that sectors, where 5G was starting to play a role, included, health, education, mining and the consumer market.
The live stream not only gave watchers the chance to experience the unique penguin colony, it also illustrated 5G’s potential as an enabler of environmental conservation. For the Boulders penguin colony, intensive conservation is becoming increasingly important.
As the largest grouping of the birds, the Boulders colony is therefore critical to the species’ survival. Its fragility was also underlined earlier this year when 64 birds died following a bee attack on the beach.
Huawei is also involved in several other conservation initiatives, including a project that uses upcycled Huawei devices and Huawei’s Cloud AI to protect rainforests.
