- Huawei and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have 
launched a pioneering project to guide biodiversity conservation focusing on 
the Bonelli's eagle in Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park.

Huawei and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have selected 
Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park in Barcelona Province for a new 
Tech4Nature<https://tech4nature.iucngreenlist.org/> project to study how 
tourism impacts the park's ecosystem, notably the Bonelli's eagle.

The park has seen a clear increase in visitors since the pandemic, reflecting a 
growing trend of leisure and tourism in periurban natural and protected spaces. 
As a result, 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. 

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. 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.

"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."

To boost research and biodiversity protection outcomes, Miño emphasized that 
expanding public-private partnerships to include universities and the business 
world is a key facet of the park's management strategy and essential for 
success, a viewpoint shared by other project's partners. 

"Collaboration between public institutions and the private sector is 
increasingly necessary to determine success in the face of complex 
environmental challenges," said Antonio Troya, Director of the IUCN Centre for 
Mediterranean Cooperation. "We have the opportunity to take advantage of 
technological innovations and incorporate them into conservation measures for 
our ecosystems. This project exemplifies how cooperation and mainstreaming are 
the way forward to halt biodiversity loss." 

Running under the IUCN-Huawei Tech4Nature partnership in line with the IUCN 
Green List and Huawei's TECH4ALL<https://www.huawei.com/en/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.

"This project is the first of its kind that we are launching in Spain, after 
dozens of successful experiences of developing solutions to protect different 
species and natural spaces in countries around the world using advanced 
technologies such as cloud, AI, and connectivity," said Eric Li, CEO of Huawei 
Spain. "The role of the technology industry in meeting this challenge is key, 
but only through collaboration with strategic and committed partners can the 
objectives be achieved in a real way."

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.

About Huawei TECH4ALL

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.

For more information, please visit website at https://www.huawei.com/en/tech4all

SOURCE  Huawei

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   Caption: Bonelli's eagle