Rainforest Connection & Huawei: Acoustics for Biodiversity Monitoring and Threat Detection

Full Solution

RFCx Guardian Device Installation

Rainforest Connection

Rainforest Connection (RFCx) has built the connective tissue to make acoustics a scalable worldwide approach to data collection and analysis for conservation. Our platform, including tools for biodiversity analysis and threat detection and a suite of hardware, enables people to understand ecosystem impacts.

The RFCx system can be used to:

Send real-time alerts to people who are able to investigate potential threats.
Find patterns of activity for planned interventions and measure effectiveness of responses.
Accommodate large data sets that can be used for biodiversity monitoring and shared.
Facilitate in-depth, long-term acoustic monitoring.
Evaluate the impacts of different management or conservation activities.
Follow the population dynamics of species over many years.

Last update: 12 Jul 2021

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Context

Challenges addressed

Desertification

Increasing temperatures

Land and Forest degradation

Loss of Biodiversity

Wildfires

Ecosystem loss

Poaching

Unsustainable harvesting incl. Overfishing

Lack of public and decision maker’s awareness

Poor monitoring and enforcement

Unemployment / poverty

GSM connectivity in remote areas. Guardian devices require connectivity in order to stream the audio data, and vulnerable ecosystems often exist in regions where such connectivity is sparse or uneven.
The hardware can be affected by varied environmental conditions, such as weather and termites. For instance, in the low light of winter, it can be difficult for the solar panels to capture enough sunlight to power the devices.
The devices are often deployed in hard-to-reach areas with difficult terrain.
Having the proper storage space in pace for mass amounts of audio data.

Scale of implementation

Local

Subnational

National

Multi-national

Global

Ecosystems

Temperate deciduous forest

Temperate evergreen forest

Tropical deciduous forest

Tropical evergreen forest

Deep sea

Open sea

Coastal forest

Theme

Biodiversity mainstreaming

Habitat fragmentation and degradation

Species management

Poaching and environmental crime

Disaster risk reduction

Mitigation

Ecosystem services

Restoration

Legal & policy frameworks

Protected and conserved areas governance

Sustainable livelihoods

Islands

Indigenous people

Local actors

Land management

Protected and conserved areas management planning

Science and research

Forest Management

Location

West Sumatra, Indonesia

Nahuelbuta, Chile

Palawan, Philippines

Tembe Reserve, Brazil

Puerto Rico

Romania

Ecuador

Greece

Sarawak, Malaysia

Osa, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Peru

Caribbean

Central America

South America

Southeast Asia

East Europe

Oceania

Process

Summary of the process

Huawei and RFCx have collaborated to create a platform that includes equipment collection, storage services, and intelligent analytics. RFCx Guardians collect sound data and upload it to the Huawei Cloud in real-time, after which Huawei's big data service is used to store and manage the audio data. Concurrently, Huawei has worked with RFCx to develop a more accurate intelligent algorithm model based on Huawei's advanced artificial intelligence service (Huawei Cloud AI) and tools (ModelArts) to achieve more accurate identification of sounds. In addition, Huawei is helping RFCx build intelligent models that detect and analyze the sounds of certain animals at various project sites.

Building Blocks

Huawei Cloud AI and Tools

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.

Enabling factors

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.

Lesson learned

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.

Resources

Huawei and RFCx: Protecting the rainforest through monitoring

RFCx Hardware

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.

Enabling factors

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.

Lesson learned

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.

Resources

Saving the rainforests with AI

Impacts

More effective conservation and land management policies and practices
Education, scientific discovery, and awareness of species presences and biodiversity changes over time, including threatened, vulnerable and endangered species
A decline in destructive illegal activity in vulnerable ecosystems, including illicit logging, mining, poaching, and land conversion.

Beneficiaries

Local partner organizations, NGOs, indigenous tribes and governments seeking to reduce environmental destruction.
Biologists, ecologists, conservationists and citizen scientists around the globe.

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 13 – Climate action

SDG 15 – Life on land

Story

Member of the Tembé indigenous tribe in the state of Pará, Brazil

Rainforest Connection

RFCx directly aids the efforts of local in-country partner organizations, NGOs, indigenous tribes and governments struggling to reduce environmental destruction. Our platform is a key element in the protection of thousands of hectares of forest in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Philippines and other locales.

For example, since 2015 we have developed, deployed and improved our solutions in order to empower the Tembé indigenous tribe in the state of Pará, Brazil to protect ~60,000 hectares of their native rainforest using real-time data and alerts. RFCx, working closely with the Tembé indigenous tribe, has learned a tremendous amount about what makes an anti-illegal logging project successful in terms of technology, infrastructure, and interpersonal relations. In 2019 and 2020, RFCx undertook development in the realms of hardware, software, coordination with local governments, local network expansion, and strategic data sharing. The result has been a system of effective reporting and communication to extract data regarding illegal activities happening in the Reserve.

Additionally, in West Sumatra, the way the local patrols were being conducted in the village forests has been altered due to the deforestation information gathered by RFCx. Our local partner has established a totally new organizational mechanism to respond to data from the Guardians which showed that illegal logging is rampant in the area. Moreover, our local partner is using the results from the webtools to showcase how RFCx systems can be an example or storefront for forest rangers and local government entities, and will encourage them to make decisions using forensic evidence and field incident reports/findings from RFCx data.