National | PANORAMA

Encourage the generation of a chain that increases the commercial value of the guanaco fiber by linking the primary production sectors with the national and international textile sectors.

Work with different actors at the local, national, and international levels, to contribute to the design of a fiber value chain that can trigger the activity. The work will consist of the identification of key public and private actors in order to provide tools for the commercialization of the product. The activities that will be developed in this stage of the project include meetings with the textile sector, application authorities, and various important local actors in this area.

-Meetings with representatives of national organizations to evaluate background, regulations, marketing, and support possibilities for wild guanaco management experiences.

-Meetings with selected fashion designers at the national (i.e Buenos Aires) or international (i.e Canada) scale, to generate a fair value chain and promote WFA experience.

-Value-added options will be identified at the national/international level through meetings with actors from the public and private sectors, to expand WFA as a “Based nature Solution".

Wildlife camelid management actions began in the 80s, based on the philosophy of the "ICDPs", seeking to link biodiversity conservation with improving the life quality of life of local people. These projects, which initially focused on the vicuña, were based on the application of economic incentives to promote the use of wildlife. We prove that wild guanaco use could improve the numbers of those initiatives because of the wider distribution range of the species. In Argentina, the production of SAC fiber could easily double due to an increase in the number of sheared populations and an increase in the frequency of shearing. This would clearly lead to a change in the production paradigm in contrast to the current one. Guanaco fiber is amongst.The Cooperative decided to add value to the raw fiber in order to increase the value. By 2010, most of the projects had stopped due to difficulty in marketing guanaco fiber with a price of USD $40-60 per kilo. The "problem" is there are only two trade companies that buy raw fiber that is exported mainly to Italy and control the market prices.

Promote sustainable use of wild guanaco populations through demonstrative experiences of live shearing in La Payunia.

Guanaco Herding

Antonella Panebianco

Pre-Shearing Corrals

Antonella Panebianco

Cooperativa Payun Matru members

Antonella Panebianco

sheared guanaco

antonella Panebianco

Inclusive and sustainable Payunia (PA.IS)

Cooperativa Payun Matru

Payun Matru Spinning Mill

cooperativa Payun Matru

Payun Matru Spinning Mill

Cooperativa Payun Matru

Payunia Management zone

Pablo Gregorio

Physiological Indicators

Ramiro Ovejero

Guanaco Wool fleece

Ramiro Ovejero

Ecological Indicators

Ramiro Ovejero

Guanaco wool sheared in one afternoon

Ramiro Ovejero

Pre-Shearing Corrals

Ramiro Ovejero

Guanaco Realease

Ramiro Ovejero

The annual shearing of guanacos by the Payún Matrú Cooperative is being closely supervised by the Mendoza Department of Renewable Natural Resources to ensure that the potential economic income provided by guanaco wool is feasible and sustainable. At the same time, Cooperative members understand that by making "good practices" they receive "good benefits". CONICET has tested and developed methods for minimizing the stress of individual guanacos during capture and handling, that reduce negative impacts at the population level. Our knowledge of ecological, physiological, and behavioral processes that "constrain" these camelids in La Payunia, based on more than 10 years of study, put us in a unique position for advising and teaching the cooperative and government stakeholders how to minimize impacts of live shearing on this population. We will continue training members of Payún Matrú Cooperative in "good practices" to make capture and shearing of wild guanacos within Wildlife Friendly Actions. The following activities will be carried out at this stage:

1)Pre-shearing surveys on population parameters, 2)Training of the personnel (without experience) in charge of guanacos handling during herding, within the corrals, and during shearing is key to the success of the activities. 3)Management of wild guanacos: Capture, shear, and release of wild guanacos will be carried out in two events, between September and November. 4)Physiological indicators: physiological stress in the function of handling conditions.5)Post-shearing surveys on population parameters such as social structure and population density.

-As we are working with wildlife, pre-shearing surveys on population parameters help us to select the best area to build the management structure.

-Training of the personnel is fundamental (and the key for the success of this solution) for the good management of the animals, avoiding guanaco mortalities and operator injuries. The management of wild guanacos is different from any other domestic animal, and it is necessary to use particular structures and tools, as well as to learn specific maneuvers for their manipulation, keeping animal welfare in mind.

-Stress approach give us a key physiological indicator to reduce stress in relation to handling time.

-Post-shearing surveys give us key population parameters such as social structure and population allow us to compared with data before the live-shearing experience and define the impact on social disruption.

Implementation

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

National

South America

Wildlife Friendly Patagonian Fiber: Building capacity for sustainability of guanaco use.

Ramiro

Ovejero

Promote sustainable use of wild guanaco populations through demonstrative experiences of live shearing in La Payunia.

Encourage the generation of a chain that increases the commercial value of the guanaco fiber by linking the primary production sectors with the national and international textile sectors.

Generate wildlife friendly certifications that increase the market value of the fiber

To Foster that Wildlife Friendly Actions (i.e, guanaco use) could bring solutions on the conflict generated between conservation and livestock production paradigm.

South America

Wildlife Friendly Patagonian Fiber: Building capacity for sustainability of guanaco use.

Ramiro

Ovejero

Promote sustainable use of wild guanaco populations through demonstrative experiences of live shearing in La Payunia.

Encourage the generation of a chain that increases the commercial value of the guanaco fiber by linking the primary production sectors with the national and international textile sectors.

Generate wildlife friendly certifications that increase the market value of the fiber

To Foster that Wildlife Friendly Actions (i.e, guanaco use) could bring solutions on the conflict generated between conservation and livestock production paradigm.

South America

Wildlife Friendly Patagonian Fiber: Building capacity for sustainability of guanaco use.

Ramiro

Ovejero

Promote sustainable use of wild guanaco populations through demonstrative experiences of live shearing in La Payunia.

Encourage the generation of a chain that increases the commercial value of the guanaco fiber by linking the primary production sectors with the national and international textile sectors.

Generate wildlife friendly certifications that increase the market value of the fiber

To Foster that Wildlife Friendly Actions (i.e, guanaco use) could bring solutions on the conflict generated between conservation and livestock production paradigm.

South America

Wildlife Friendly Patagonian Fiber: Building capacity for sustainability of guanaco use.

Ramiro

Ovejero

Promote sustainable use of wild guanaco populations through demonstrative experiences of live shearing in La Payunia.

Encourage the generation of a chain that increases the commercial value of the guanaco fiber by linking the primary production sectors with the national and international textile sectors.

Generate wildlife friendly certifications that increase the market value of the fiber

To Foster that Wildlife Friendly Actions (i.e, guanaco use) could bring solutions on the conflict generated between conservation and livestock production paradigm.

RFCx Hardware

RFCx Edge Device

Rainforest Connection

Guardian in the Canopy

Rainforest Connection

Guardian in the Canopy, West Sumatra

Rainforest Connection

RFCx has created project-specific solutions for monitoring biodiversity and detecting illegal activities. Our hardware offerings include the RFCx Guardian and the RFCx Edge, both with specific strengths and goals in mind.

Guardian: A device which streams acoustic data to the cloud and provides real-time monitoring. Guardians consist of a custom board, weatherproof box, antenna, microphone, and solar panels adapted to collect the light that makes its way through the canopy.

Edge: An acoustic logging device that listens for sound from audible into ultrasonic frequencies, and records uncompressed audio to SD cards. They are easy to install and can be configured by an app. They are used for in-depth short-term biodiversity assessments.

Every new project site has challenges, and we have been deploying an entirely new version of the Guardian since October 2020. We have been learning much about some of the nuances of the device. For example, we learned that in European environments we need additional solar panels in order to capture the low winter light.

Saving the rainforests with AI

Huawei Cloud AI and Tools

Huawei Cloud Infrastructure

Huawei, RFCx

Our AI model for chainsaw detections are modified and strengthened with support through our partnership with Huawei, and all data collected in our Huawei-sponsored projects is stored on the Huawei Cloud. Huawei has cooperated with RFCx to develop more accurate intelligent algorithm models based on Huawei's advanced artificial intelligence service (Huawei Cloud AI) and tools (ModelArts) to achieve more accurate identification of illegal forest activity (the sounds of chainsaws, vehicles etc.). In addition, Huawei is helping RFCx build intelligent models that detect and analyze the sounds of fauna, providing information about their habitat, threats, and even life habits, helping local partners protect endangered species.

RFCx's partnership with Huawei, including being granted usage of the Huawei Cloud for data storage and analysis, has enabled us to expand and refine our offerings like never before. Huawei and RFCx have worked together to develop innovative platforms that include equipment collection, storage services, and intelligent analytics.

Pursuing strong corporate partnerships, like Huawei, allows us to more efficiently tackle challenges through their support and tools. Huawei has enabled high precision models,which will significantly reduces the rate of alert false positives.

Huawei and RFCx: Protecting the rainforest through monitoring