Smart Cycad Construction: Building a New Ecological Defense Line
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Smart Cycad Comprehensive Information Management Platform of the Sichuan Panzhihua Cycad National Nature Reserve
Sichuan Panzhihua Cycad National Nature Reserve Protection Center
Although the Sichuan Panzhihua Cycad National Nature Reserve covers a small area, it is situated on the outskirts of an urban area where the surrounding region is highly urbanized and industrialized, with frequent human activity. Due to the combined effects of the dry-hot valley climate and human activities, the fire risk is high. As a national nature reserve with exceptionally high ecological value, it faces significant protection challenges, and traditional management methods encounter considerable difficulties. Leveraging technology to enhance conservation efforts, the reserve has implemented a localized smart Cycad informatization system. Equipped with various monitoring devices such as drones, field video surveillance, and infrared cameras, the reserve has established an informatized and intelligent monitoring system. This has successfully created an integrated patrol and monitoring system.
Last update: 29 Oct 2025
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Context
Challenges addressed
Environmental Challenges: Located in a hot, dry valley region, the climate conditions keep the risk of forest fires persistently high.
Social Challenges: Situated on the urban outskirts, the surrounding area is highly urbanized and industrialized, with frequent human activities that significantly disrupt the reserve’s vegetation, such as Cycas panzhihuaensis and Firmiana major, and its ecological environment.
Management Challenges: A large number of rare plants are concentrated within a limited area, making conservation efforts challenging. Traditional management methods often struggle to address this complex situation effectively.
Location
East Asia
Process
Summary of the process
Interaction Between BLOCKs: BLOCK 1 collects real-time data on fire incidents, human activities, wildlife activities, air quality, etc. All data converge into BLOCK 2, which organizes and analyzes the information to provide accurate and comprehensive support for reserve management. The BLOCKs work collaboratively to build a “sky-air-ground-human” three-dimensional patrol and monitoring system.
Building Blocks
Monitoring Equipment and Systems
(1) Established an automated drone hangar and a comprehensive 3D high-definition model sandbox to facilitate aerial patrol monitoring; (2) Installed 17 field video surveillance points, 2 forest fire prevention radars, 1 meteorological station, and 28 dynamic field infrared camera monitoring points; (3) Developed the Smart Nature Patrol app; (4) Created electronic ID cards for nearly 80,000 Cycas panzhihuaensis and Firmiana major specimens in the science popularization area.
Enabling factors
(1) High-efficiency equipment, including advanced technologies such as drones and fire prevention radars; (2) Combining advanced equipment with ground patrols conducted by forest rangers to create a complementary system.
Lesson learned
(1) Harsh field environments lead to high equipment failure rates and increased maintenance costs; (2) There is a need for unified data standards.
Integrated Management Platform
Integrated and upgraded plant archives, video surveillance, environmental monitoring, data visualization, and patrol monitoring management systems into the “Smart Cycad Integrated Information Management Platform”, creating an intelligent and informatized management system comprising “one set of archives, three platforms, and five systems”.
Enabling factors
(1) Demand for digital transformation; (2) Support from technological advancements.
Lesson learned
(1) Data security protection; (2) Operation and maintenance support.
Impacts
Significant Improvement in Management Efficiency: The integrated system provides continuous 24/7 monitoring, significantly enhancing risk identification and response capabilities.
Stronger Data Support: Continuously accumulated monitoring data provide a reliable foundation for scientific research, policy-making, law enforcement oversight, and the evaluation of protection effectiveness.
Transformation of the Protection Model: Promotes the reserve’s shift from the traditional “human defense” approach to a modern management model that combines “human defense” with technological defense.
Beneficiaries
Direct Beneficiaries: Ecological Environment and Species; Nature Reserve Management Institutions
Indirect Beneficiaries: Surrounding Residents
Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)
GBF Target 1 – Plan and Manage all Areas To Reduce Biodiversity Loss
GBF Target 4 – Halt Species Extinction, Protect Genetic Diversity, and Manage Human-Wildlife Conflicts
GBF Target 20 – Strengthen Capacity-Building, Technology Transfer, and Scientific and Technical Cooperation for Biodiversity
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Story
To protect this rare and endangered plant and its ecological environment, the Cycad Protection Center, in 2014 and in accordance with the “Guiding Opinions on the Development of Smart Forestry in China,” employed new-generation information technology to develop Cycas Panzhihuaensis electronic archive and management system. This included a 3D visualization integrated management system, an ecological monitoring data collection, management, and analysis system, a smart field patrol terminal collection and application system, and a permanent dynamic sample plot construction and monitoring system. The center innovated informatization strategies by creating a new media natural education platform and an interactive service platform, ushering in the big data era for rare and endangered plant protection. In 2016 and 2020, the center implemented the second and third phases of informatization construction as needed. Leveraging informatization technology, the Cycad Protection Center has comprehensively established a “smart reserve,” forming a “sky-air-ground-human” integrated patrol and monitoring system that significantly enhances protection and management efficiency while preventing and mitigating risks. The continuously accumulated monitoring data following informatization construction also provide a robust data foundation for scientific research, administrative law enforcement, and evaluation of protection effectiveness.