Huawei-Kenya and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), have launched a project to monitor and protect coral reef and biodiversity in Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Park and Reserve.
The three-year project aims to strengthen the monitoring and management efficacy of the protected area located on the southern coast of Kenya.
Underwater cameras, photogrammetry, and audio monitoring technologies will be deployed to monitor marine life, including the biomass and population of parrot fish.
In many coral reef ecosystems, parrot fish are a keystone species that, due to their diet, help prevent coral from being smothered by seaweed and algae.
The digital power solution and improved network connectivity covering the park and watch tower will enable the rapid transmission of collected data to a cloud server for analysis by Artificial Intelligence trained to recognize specific target species by sight or sound.
It will also provide real-time data-driven insights into the behaviors, population and distribution of biodiversity in the reserve and the 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
The solution will also monitor substrate cover in the reef ecosystems, seagrass cover, and the occurrence of green turtles and bottlenose dolphins, which are classified on the IUCN Red List as endangered and vulnerable.
Kisite-Mpunguti reserve faces several challenges including illegal fishing and insufficient resources to effectively patrol the area.
Others are the 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, as well as insufficient communications network infrastructure for underpinning tech-driven monitoring.
Huawei-Kenya’s Media Director, Khadija Ahmed underscored the importance of leveraging technology and innovation to solve pressing global challenges.
“Climate change and biodiversity loss are threatening the health of our planet 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 Ahmed.
Innocent Kabenga, Country Representative-IUCN Kenya Country Office noted that the technology is one of its kind to be used in the country for marine conservation.
“It will be the first monitoring instrument and data capturing 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 generations enjoy the benefits of the Marine parks,” said Kabenga.
KWS Senior Assistant Director, Coast Conservation Area Adan Kala noted that the partnership will enable them to understand their resources in the marine ecosystems 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,” said Kala.
“The advantage of this technology is it can be deployed in wider areas that we couldn’t patrol every single day to get data for day and night for us to make good, informed decisions,” he added.
By Gesimba Gloria and Mgeni Salim