In the Congo Basin, the second largest rainforest area on the planet, the population of African forest elephants has declined dramatically for many years. This decline is the results of habitat loss on account of deforestation and climate change, in addition to rampant poaching.
We can see the positive environmental effects of those species regularly disappearing. As a keystone species on this habitat, the dwindling presence of elephants has major impacts that chances are you’ll not imagine. African forest elephants have been shown to extend carbon storage of their habitats. They are “ecosystem engineers,” in accordance with the World Wildlife Fund which implies less vegetation is removed and space is made for stronger, more resilient flora.
Although we all know these changes will occur because the elephant population declines, it’s difficult to really observe them. The World Wide Fund for Nature-Germany has got down to track and discover individual elephants in an effort to count them. With the assistance of IBM, WWF is capable of deploy a system of camera traps linked to software that permits for automatic tracking versus manual tracking.
Expanding our vision with technology
Computer vision can provide a brand new perspective here. IBM announced Earlier this 12 months, the corporate announced that it will partner with WWF to mix camera traps with IBM Maximo® Visual Inspection (MVI) to observe and track individual elephants as they walk past the camera traps.
“MVI’s AI-powered visual inspection and modeling capabilities enable head- and tusk-based image recognition of individual elephants, just like the way in which we discover humans by their fingerprints,” said Kendra DeKeyrel, Vice President ESG and Asset Management Product Leader at IBM.
These features not only allow for counting or spotting individual elephants, but additionally for tracking a few of their behaviors to raised understand their movement patterns and impact on the ecosystem. In particular, MVI offers assist in automating the strategy of identifying these elephants in order that staff do not need to have a look at the pictures manually. In addition, the AI's advanced visual recognition capabilities can determine the identity of an elephant from a blurry or incomplete image.
“Counting African forest elephants is each difficult and expensive,” said Dr. Thomas Breuer, WWF African Forest Elephant Coordinator. “The logistics are complex and the resulting population numbers usually are not precise. The ability to discover individual elephants in camera trap images using artificial intelligence could fundamentally change this.”
Strengthening our connection to nature
The more we learn concerning the movements and migrations of the African forest elephant, the more additional information we will gain from our higher understanding of the species' behavior and interactions with its environment. “IBM is investigating how one can use IBM Environmental Intelligence's above-ground biomass estimates to raised predict elephants' future locations and migration patterns and their impacts on a given forest,” DeKeyrel said.
This includes determining the extent to which African forest elephants can contribute to mitigating climate change. The presence of elephants is understood to assist increase the forest's carbon storage capability. “African forest elephants play a critical role in influencing the form of forest structure, including increasing the variety, density and abundance of plant and tree species,” explained Oday Abbosh, head of IBM Global Sustainability Services. It is appreciated This one forest elephant can increase the web carbon sequestration capability of the forest by nearly 250 acres, the equivalent of removing the annual emissions of two,047 cars from the atmosphere.
A more accurate picture of the elephant population enables performance-based payments for conservation, resembling wildlife credits. This could help organizations in the long run higher estimate the financial value of African forest elephants' services to nature (NCP), resembling carbon sequestration.
We know that wildlife is always shaping the planet and is affected by our own activities, even when we will't see it. Thanks to ongoing technological breakthroughs, we’re increasingly getting a clearer picture of the wildlife world that was previously difficult to know. When we will see it, we will respond and help protect species in need and strengthen our reference to nature.
“Our collaboration with WWF represents a major step forward on this effort,” said Abbosh. “By combining our expertise in technology and sustainability with WWF's conservation expertise, we aim to harness the facility of technology to create a more sustainable future.”
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