Dimension Data and Cisco are expanding their anti-poaching Connected Conservation programme into Zambia, Kenya, and Mozambique to continue protecting rhino, as well as help fight the war on the startling numbers of African savanna elephants being poached. This move follows a successful pilot which saw the two companies install some of the world’s most sophisticated technology in a private game reserve located next to the world-renowned Kruger National Park in South Africa.
Since the technology for Connected Conservation was deployed in the private reserve in November 2015, the number of rhino poaching incidents has been reduced by 96%. In 2017, no rhino in the reserve were poached.
Every day, hundreds of suppliers and contractors, staff, security personnel, and tourists enter and exit game reserves and parks around the world. The human activity in these environments is often not monitored because the reserve is in a remote location with basic IT infrastructure and access control, manual security processes, and very limited communication.
“Many organizations have committed to protecting animals through various reactive initiatives, such as dehorning, or inserting sensors in the horn and under the subcutaneous layer of skin, explained Dimension Data Group Executive, Bruce Watson. “However, the problem with reactive initiatives is that by the time the reserve rangers reach the animal, it has been killed and the rhino horn or elephant tusks have been hacked off.”
With the Connected Conservation model, the technology is designed to proactively protect the land against humans. The animals are not touched and are left to roam freely while a ‘layered’ effect of sophisticated technology, people and gadgets protect them.”
Cisco and Dimension Data’s vision is to replicate the solution in South Africa, Africa, and globally to protect all forms of endangered species including lion, pangolin, elephant, tigers in India and Asia, as well as sharks and sea rays in the ocean. The next project is already underway in an unnamed park in Zambia. This will be followed by Kenya and then Mozambique with a strong focus on protecting elephant.
According to a 2016, Great Elephant Census (GEC) carried out by the Seattle-based Vulcan Inc, which is the engine behind philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen’s network of organizations and initiatives, the savanna elephant population declined by 30% between 2007 and 2014, which equates to 144,000 elephants. The current rate of decline is 8% per year, primarily due to poaching. In Zambia, the elephant count was 21,758, with an 85% carcass ratio in Siomi Ngwezi National Park, 3% for the rest of Zambia, and substantial declines along the Zambezi River.
