Huawei announces it has offered its technology to non-governmental organizations with around 14 research projects related to environmental conservation in 10 countries.
The initiative named “Tech4All” has developed advanced technology to monitor and protect threatened regions in Latin America and the Caribbean that encompass marine and terrestrial ecosystems. During the LATAM ICT 2022 Congress, they announced the advances obtained in projects in which they participate with Rainforest Connection, a non-profit technology company specialized in the use of acoustics for conservation.
According to Michael Xue, vice president of Huawei Latin America and the Caribbean, “technological innovation in the digital sector was closely related to protecting the environment and became more important after the pandemic since the challenge of continuing to innovate with clean energy is even greater.”
Chrissy Durkin, Director of International Expansion for the Rainforest Connection, added that they had two primary goals: to use sound to detect illegal activities such as clandestine logging and poaching and to use it to control biodiversity. She said that “habitat destruction and deforestation are actually the number one cause of plant and animal extinction.”
“That way all the species that emit sounds in all kinds of ecosystems can be monitored and protected using technology as well,” she explained. “One million species are in danger of extinction and right now we are experiencing the sixth mass extinction. So using technology to enable us to solve this problem is critical for the future of our species, and all other species”.
“The tropical forest is disappearing at a rate of more than 32 million hectares per year, 90% of all logging and reinforcement (a practice in the production and sale of wood) is illegal. So that’s an important statistic because that means there really is a mandate to stop it, that we can do something about,” Durkin added.
Durkin said that focus in Latin America is crucial, as 50% of the world’s biodiversity resides in the region.
Huawei also takes part in the protection and conservation of the tropical forest and spider monkeys in Costa Rica, as well as a recent project in Chile to help protect biodiversity in the Nahuelbuta mountain range and Darwin’s fox, an endemic species of the country in danger of extinction. A few months ago, the company also started a project in the Dzilam nature reserve for the protection of mangroves and jaguars in southeastern Mexico.
“In these corporate social responsibility projects we take an approach of using our technologies and applying them to real problems and challenges so that we can eventually produce the right innovative solutions for the local context,” said Marcelo Pino, Vice President of Public Affairs at Huawei Latin America and the Caribbean.
At the Huawei congress, experts estimated that “the world’s growing population requires more energy than ever, with average consumption increasing by 1% to 2% each year. It is estimated that three-quarters of the terrestrial environment and two-thirds of the marine environment have been significantly altered by human action and that around one million animal and plant species are in danger of extinction”.
