Spain park selected for Tech4Nature project to study tourism impact on biodiversity

Friday, January 6, 2023

A pioneering project has been launched by Huawei and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which will study how tourism impacts a park’s ecosystem. Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac Natural Park in Barcelona Province has been selected for this new Tech4Nature project. Notably the Bonelli’s eagle will be the prime focus in this project.

Scheduled for launch in February 2023, the project will see Huawei and partners developing and deploying a tech-based solution comprising cameras, GPS receivers, and a cloud platform that will serve as the computing and storage infrastructure, prnewswire reported. Forming an alert-detection system, the solution will observe and monitor the mobility of the eagle and determine the factors that disturb its reproductive success – human disturbance to breeding areas has already been identified as a major threat to the eagle.

The data collected will be sent to the cloud platform for analysis by AI, which will help guide conservation decisions, support park managers in responding quickly and effectively to potential environmental risks, and educate the public on conservation.

In recent times, the park has witnessed a clear increase in visitors due to which park managers have observed changes in the behavioral patterns of the Bonelli’s eagle, which nests in the park and is listed as vulnerable in the Spanish Red Book of Birds.

“The project will help us to have more information to manage and regulate public use,” said Ángel Miño, director of the Natural Park under Barcelona Provincial Council. “It will also bring biodiversity conservation closer to the general public, as videos and other dissemination materials are planned. In collaboration with Huawei and IUCN, the project allows us to make a qualitative leap by incorporating new technologies to the monitoring and conservation of species.”

Running under the IUCN-Huawei Tech4Nature partnership in line with the IUCN Green List and Huawei’s TECH4ALL initiative, the park managers – Barcelona Provincial Council – will launch the project in the park in early 2023. The technical solution will be developed by Huawei in collaboration with the University of Girona during 2023 and 2024.

The Tech4Nature partnership, which aims to develop technology-based conservation solutions for 300 protected areas over three years and measure project efficacy against the IUCN Green List, combines IUCN’s nature conservation experience and Huawei’s expertise in developing cutting-edge digital technologies.

As well as ensuring that Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac Natural Park can balance biodiversity protection with enjoyment for all, it is hoped that this model can be perfected and replicated in other protected areas of Spain.

TECH4ALL is Huawei’s long-term digital inclusion initiative that aims to leave no one behind in the digital world. It focuses on four domains: enabling equity and quality of education, conserving nature with technology, enabling inclusive healthcare, and development.

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