Technology, Wildlife and Nature

Biodiversity and wildlife are essential for health, well-being and for the economy. Businesses depend on nature. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the clothes we wear or the food we eat, all of them rely on natural resources and healthy natural ecosystems.

But we are losing biodiversity at an alarming rate. Last data, provided by WWF in the #LivingPlanetReport, shows that a million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction today, the oceanic sharks and rays have declined by 71% over the last 50 years and we lost half of the world’s corals. Data confirms that planet Earth is in the middle of a biodiversity crisis.

This biodiversity crisis is a threat for our economy. Industries could be significantly disrupted by natural resources scarcity. By the end of 2023, the world economy gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to reach $105 trillion and about the 55% – equivalent to an estimated US $58 trillion – is moderately or highly dependent on nature. There are not any economic sectors that independent on nature. PwC estimates that a 50.6% of the market value of listed companies on 19 major stock exchanges is exposed to material nature risk.

We need to act, and we need speed on the action. We need to move beyond conservation to regeneration. Nature regeneration is good for people, good for planet and good for business. Some estimations say that the investment in nature conservation could generate up to $10 trillion in additional annual business revenue and create 395 million new jobs by 2030.

The good news to face this callenge is that new technologies offer a faster path to act and recover nature.

The United Nations recognized the importance of technology in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and according to a recent study of the World Economic Forum if we employ technological innovation, we could make progress with two-thirds of the 169 targets within the Sustainable Development Goals United Nations .

Many organizations, government and private corporations are working together to create a favourable environment to mobilize capital and to support ecological preservation through technology. We are seeing a few good examples that showcase how these collaborations are working and how they are using technology.

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One of these good examples is the #TECH4ALL program of Huawei . An initiative launched by Huawei in collaboration with multiple partners to promote a more inclusive and sustainable world for all, using innovative technologies.

TECH4ALL includes many interesting projects around the planet. One of my favourites is the Smart Whales Sounds project that is sponsored by Huawei Ireland Research Center in partnership with eco-acoustics NGO, Rainforest Connection (RFCx) (RFCx). The final objective of the project is to propose recommendations for mitigation pollution and management strategies.

Sounds play a critical role in Marine Ecosystems with many marine mammal species relying on it for communication, navigation and finding food. Ocean noise is rising at an alarming rate due to human activities as shipping, construction, or resources exploration. It is believed that noise pollution causes as much damage to marine life as overfishing or climate change.

Smart Whales Sounds Project is using an AI development platform and cloud storage, coupled with machine learning, to automate wildlife monitoring for marine conservation. They are developing the most up to date technology to detect vocalisations in real-time and identify cetacean species in Ireland. Thanks to the results they are getting thanks to technology, they could develop an early warning system to instruct ships to reduce speed and avoid ship strikes as well as to propose noise threshold informed by scientific data on frequency levels affecting marine live.

Researchers are calling to enhance monitoring and data collection deploying a network of hydrophones and acoustic sensors for real time monitoring, because it would facilitate to accelerate the protection of the oceans from noise pollution.

Additionally, they call to increase public education, international collaboration and new policy management strategies based on the available scientific data.

There is no doubt that technology is the faster way to a more sustainable society and a big leap to achieve objectives on the conservation and recovery of marine species.