Art Photography

We document and promote our work through art photography. Pictures are powerful, as they are visual materials that people can see. They make messages around conservation more impactful among the community members we work with.

We engage professional photographs to join and document expeditions. So far, we have a portfolio of more than 17,342 pictures.

  • Keen to involve artists in supporting conservation work.
  • Revisiting our local traditional conservation methods involved working with artists and cultural practitioners.
  • Art and culture is a tool Africans have always used and continue to use to educate wider communities to love their nature.
  •  Visual art is the best tool to send a message faster and more powerful to communities, especially young people.
  • Art and culture reconnect personally to his/her roots.
Strong Partnership

We established strong partnerships with the Nature Reserves government authorities (Tanzania Forest Service Agency (TFS), as well as with the Department of Natural Resources and Tourism and Youth Development. They provide continuous support, whether it is the use of a vehicle, the delivery of permits, recommendation letters, or waive camping fees to our team and skills.

We also maintain good partnerships with local communities, who propose new activities, and new camping sites to extend the eco-tourism offer and support in installations of sign boards. EAMCEF provided funding $10,000 to support ecological and cultural tourism by empowering the Choma community found adjacent to the Uluguru mountains. Nafasi Art Space provided training in developing art program and fund $1000.

Report and continuous activities updates sharing with stakeholders.

 

Updating about and involving others in our work and cooperating with our partners have improved and shaped positive impact to our communities. For example they have formed an ecotourism group called Choma ecotourism group to manage ecological and cultural tourism development.

Team determination

Our work involves self-motivation and self-financing. TEG team determination to support the conservation of biodiversity and empowerment of youth living adjacent to nature reserves includes organizing online exhibitions and online behaviour change campaigns. With or without external support, TEG staff have volunteerly engaged with donors, government officials, and communities in designing the program, fundraising, and implementing it.

TEG founders and Alumni internal support in skills development trainings, in conducting baseline surveys and reflections on issues relating to conservation, in connecting with stakeholders, and financing of some of the activities.  

As a youth organization we have been growing by first willing to invest in ourselves, in our credibility and capability before attaching donors and partners. TEG Team and TEG alumni’s determination was our only asset to do that.

Data Quantification and Database Establishment

Import the raw data of sound into Adobe Audition 3.0 or Avisoft-SASLab Pro sound analysis software, resampled (Sample size: 44100 Hz; Window size: 1024 points), and then saved separately in WAV format. High-quality waveforms and sonograms were selected to measure characteristics of Hainan gibbons’ calls, to analyze the differences in acoustic indexes between individuals, and to build a database of Hainan gibbon sound patterns on an individual basis. Then, perform individual sound recognition using the implemented sound recognition model. Finally, the effectiveness of the sound acquisition is evaluated, and the accuracy of the sound recognition is assessed. Among them, the evaluation of the sound recognition effect is done mainly by comparing with the field research and other sound monitoring results.

Based on the acquired time-frequency domain characteristics of Hainan gibbons, the parameters used for automatic recognition were determined in conjunction with the vocal database. The selected time-frequency parameters were imported into the automatic recognition software and the developed algorithm program to automatically identify and extract Hainan gibbon calls from the recordings. Information such as the number of gibbons that may be present in the sound data is evaluated by different clustering and discriminative methods.

The fully-automated acoustic monitoring equipment is of vital use for data processing in this project. The transmitted sound data is automatically stored in Huawei cloud space. Once the Hainan biodiversity sound pattern Huawei cloud database be established, individual sound recognition could be realized.

Sound Recording Equipment layout and installation

Based on the research results, combined with the coverage of 4G signal, a set of domestic automatic sound recording equipment with 4G signal, which has a real-time transmission function (product model: LBird-01211) was installed in the typical environment of Hainan gibbons in the Bawangling Reserve.  

The field research results showed that group C and group E have strong 4G signal coverage, which can meet the remote transmission conditions for recording equipment as tested by technicians. Therefore, three and two sets of equipment were chosen to be deployed in group C and group E respectively.

The equipment analyzes the remotely acquired sound data including the environment and location information and tries to practice individual vocal recognition in the layout area from the perspective of sounding.

The Creole Language Academy

The Creole Language Academy is the authorised body to approve new words into the Creole language. Officially, the collaboration with them was essential to elgitimise the exercise and to obtain official new words and terms for seagrass. On the other hand, the Academy's input was essential in ensuring that the cultural element of the naming process was maintained.

 

Transparency was a key element in the process to ensure everyone was kept in the know of any developments. A committee of linguists, conservationists and scientists was created to filter findings from the public before submission to the Academy. 

To introduce a new word into a language, there's firstly an official process which needs to be followed. It is important to identify all the steps and actors which play a role in this exercise. The Committee which was set up was important in adding legitimacy and support to the process - all key players had to feel that they were involved and that was a good way to get them to collaborate and exhange ideas. This also faciliated the work of the Academy as the words and terms which were submitted had been well thought out.

 

Economic drivers

Reptile farming is well positioned to capitalize on emerging markets. Until recently, reptiles have been somewhat overlooked and undervalued due to colonial legacies and euro-centric agri-food tendencies towards warm-blooded livestock. Reptile products are mostly valued in the Global South where the impacts of climate change are predicted to be acute and the drivers for transformational change are dynamic. Dovetailing a novel agri-food sustainability concept with traditional cultural and culinary values in tropical regions offers unique economic opportunities. That said, future growth will depend on good farming practices and close supervision by veterinary and other authorities. Research on envionmental impacts and broader health implications (e.g., feeding unprocessed animal waste protein to reptile livestock) is essential. 

The reptile industry holds substantial growth potential. Established local and international markets exist for meat, skins, pets, and various body parts used in the pharmaceutical industry (e.g. squalene oil). Farmers are typically linked to multiple revenue streams and financial risks are spread across multiple geographies. These economic opportunities are complimented by the ability to scale management inputs and outputs in accordance with adaptive physiologies in order to buffer farmers against the impacts of economic and environmental shocks.

Many reptile production models are expanding via vertical and horizontal integration (i.e., emergence of corporate factory farms). Development approaches that focus purely on economic profitability may compromise the viability of small-scale production models and threaten key animal welfare, environmental, and social sustainability credentials. The loss of democratic food systems presents a risk to regional food security and food sovereignty.

Education and awareness

Until recently there was minimal agricultural precedent or appreciation for farmed reptiles, and most people strongly preferred wild-caught alternatives. Vietnam has since celebrated the success of the reptile farming industry, and the general public are now well informed about the industry and the end products. Farmed reptile products are available in most wet markets and on the menu of many mainstream restaurants. A remaining challenge is that there has been no attempt to regulate or inform customers of what farmers feed to their reptiles. Wild-sourced animals (e.g., rodents captured in rice fields), commerical feeds (e.g., fish pellets), and waste protein from agri-food chains (e.g., still born pigs and male chicks from hatcheries) are the most common feed types. The risks associated with these feed inputs need further research and evaluation. The risk of wild laundering of reptiles also remians, but the scale and likelihood have been significantly reduced through more lucrative production models (e.g., selective line breeding to improve production genetics) and improved law enforcement.  

Institutional support, workshops, social media, and government media outlets (e.g., national television). Cheap smartphones and access to the internet.

Communication has been limited to direct social, economic, and nutritional benefits. The public remains largely unaware of the less tangible benefits of reptile farming such as those related to emerging global challenges (e.g., zoonotic disease, climate change, and environmental sustainability). Science-based content via social media platforms can be a powerful education tool for complex, cross-cutting themes. Ongoing research and development of health and veterinary aspects of reptile farming are required to aligne with international livestock standards. 

Video Capturing and Fish Recognition Module

With underwater HD cameras deployed in the rivers, the video streams are fed to an edge device. The edge devices are physically close to the rivers, with the benefit of reduced latency. A highly optimized AI inference software is implemented for real-time fish recognition.

By presenting the AI module with tens of thousands of labeled pictures, the algorithm quickly comes up to desired level of accuracy. As more and more species of fish passes through the system, the algorithm learns even more and becomes better and better

Having the edge device close to the sorting mechanism proves to be highly efficient. Currently the species of fish is recognized by the algorithm within 8 milliseconds. Different light and background colors impact the capabilities of fish recognition. Light colored background, but not completely white proves to be best. Midnight sun has a positive effect, making the recognition able to run 24/7

Long-term partnerships with the government and NGOs

Since establishment, CTPH has cultivated strong partnerships with government and other stakeholders, including other NGOs and the private sector. This ensures that CTPH’s work is in line with government priorities and strategies, is supported by the Government and aligns with other stakeholders. This was particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Government of Uganda instituted a strict ‘no movement’ lockdown to minimise spread of infection. Recognising that CTPH’s work is critical to the survival of Uganda’s mountain gorillas and the livelihoods dependent on them, the Government  granted CTPH special permission to continue its One Health activities.

 

CTPH’s advocacy activities are more successful due to the ongoing close working relationship that CTPH maintains with government institutions. This includes calling for park rangers and other conservation personnel to be amongst the priority groups for COVID-19 vaccination, primarily because of their close contact with Uganda’s endangered great apes which are highly susceptible to human respiratory diseases and because their survival is not only critical for biodiversity conservation but also for the Ugandan economy. CTPH also successfully advocated for the adoption of more stringent great ape viewing guidelines.

  • Routine communication and dialogue with relevant government personnel and departments as well as NGO and CBO partners
  • Regular and early stakeholder engagement that extended to academia and the private sector
  • Respect for CTPH and Gorilla Conservation Coffee amongst government departments, NGOs, tour operators and other private sector stakeholders as well as research institutions
  • Engaging stakeholders early, during project design and planning stages, is mutually beneficial and helps to ensure projects align with government and organisational strategic directions and priorities
  • Acknowledging government and other stakeholder support and input in external communication maintains trust
  • Joint proposal development helps to align priorities and allow for easier scale up and lesson learning