* The “cloud” is not the one hanging up within the sky. It is the truth is cloud expertise, which has been utilized to wildlife conservation in Latin America.

* With cloud expertise, technicians and ecologists from China and its trans-Pacific companions have been in a position to work hand in hand below the Belt and Road Initiative to guard endangered species and their habitats in Latin America.

* This cooperation has sowed the seeds of hope for a greater future.

by Xinhua writers Chen Yao, Wu Hao and Ma Xiaocheng

GUANGZHOU/MEXICO CITY, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) — Only a “cloud” away is how residents on the Dzilam State Reserve in Mexico consider the space between Latin America and China, regardless of their geographical farness.

The “cloud” is not the one hanging up within the sky. What the residents consult with is the truth is cloud expertise, which has been utilized to wildlife conservation not solely on this Mexican reserve, but additionally in Chile, Costa Rica and different Latin American nations.

In latest years, with cloud expertise, technicians and ecologists from China and its trans-Pacific companions have been in a position to work hand in hand below the Belt and Road Initiative to guard endangered species and their habitats in Latin America. This cooperation has, as many locals within the area stated, sowed the seeds of hope of their hearts for a greater future.

TRACKING ENDANGERED ANIMALS

The Dzilam State Reserve, positioned within the municipalities of Dzilam de Bravo and San Felipe within the Yucatan Peninsula, is nestled amongst lush inexperienced vegetation.

“This entire land was the jaguars’ home. I have liked this animal since my childhood. I knew that the jaguar was part of us,” stated Juan Castillo, a group chief of Dzilam de Bravo.

Home to many endemic and endangered species in Mexico, the realm, recognized for its biodiversity-rich habitats, has began to witness ecosystem degradation through the years as a consequence of human actions and local weather change. In 2002, jaguar, the one massive cat left within the reserve, was listed as Near Threatened within the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Local communities and environmentalists have tried to trace the habitat of jaguars, however have discovered it fairly tough: These animals are sometimes hidden in huge forests or tropical rainforests, not often leaving unmistakable traces, making it laborious to watch them below pure situations. Besides, the percentages of real-time monitoring of unlawful searching and poaching are additionally fairly low.

The same state of affairs additionally befell Darwin’s fox in Chile.

In the eyes of Bernardo Reyes, director of Chilean setting group Etica en los Bosques (Forest Ethics), Nahuelbuta, a biodiversity hotspot in Chile, will not be solely a treasure trove of unique forests, but additionally a paradise for world zoologists trying to find the footprints of puma, skunk, Chilean deer and Darwin’s fox.

However, just a few years in the past, Reyes began to fret concerning the safety and examine of Darwin’s fox, a extremely ecologically beneficial umbrella species, whose safety, if secured, would additionally shield different species.

Samira Herrera, Huawei Mexico Communications and Public Relations supervisor, talks through video with Zeng Ming, TECH4ALL venture supervisor of Huawei, in Mexico City, Mexico, Aug. 17, 2023. (Photo by Francisco Canedo/Xinhua)

PROTECTING BIODIVERSITY

To higher shield wild animals and biodiversity, the Tech4Nature Mexico venture was launched within the Dzilam reserve by the federal government of Yucatan, IUCN, China’s tech big Huawei, C Minds, Rainforest Connection (RFCx) and different organizations.

The venture collects video knowledge from cameras recording 24 hours a day within the Dzilam State Reserve to observe the biodiversity of the realm and use acoustic expertise to know the existence of species and the well being of ecosystems.

Zeng Ming, TECH4ALL venture supervisor of Huawei within the southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen, stated utilizing key applied sciences to course of tens of 1000’s of hours of audio and video can seize helpful content material in just some hours, with a median evaluation accuracy of 96 p.c.

Zeng added that they supply on-line and face-to-face coaching for locals, which helps enhance work effectivity.

Regina Cervera, Tech4Nature coordinator at C Minds in Mexico, stated that when the employees put in cameras and left, nobody would enter or disturb the realm through the interval.

After 40 days, the employees returned, took out the digital camera storage card and uploaded the photographs and video recordsdata to Huawei Cloud for additional evaluation.

In latest years, Chile and Costa Rica have additionally carried out comparable coordination below this venture.

In Chile, the venture offers an ecological acoustic monitoring platform that makes use of Huawei’s cloud and synthetic intelligence (AI) expertise to help the environmental safety work of the RFCx group.

RFCx’s analysis crew would use Huawei’s AI mannequin to establish the areas the place Darwin’s foxes seem by figuring out sounds, finding out their residing habits and creating administration plans to guard the species.

In addition, Reyes defined that if a menace is detected, the system will problem a real-time alarm and ship the placement of logging and poaching through an app to the telephones of native forest rangers to assist them rapidly intervene on web site.

Zeng Ming, TECH4ALL venture supervisor of Huawei, talks through video with Samira Herrera, Huawei Mexico Communications and Public Relations supervisor, in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province, Aug. 18, 2023. (Xinhua/Cheng Chixiang)

SOWING HOPES

Omelia Trejo, a resident of the Dzilam de Bravo group, stated their dream is “protecting jaguars for a lifetime,” however they nervous that sooner or later, kids may solely see jaguars in pictures. “Thanks to this project, our dream has come true.”

From September 2022 to May 2023, native consultants, with the assistance of Huawei Cloud, have recognized 119 species within the Dzilam reserve, together with 88 species of birds, 22 species of mammals, 5 species of reptiles and 4 species of amphibians, of which 34 species are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They have additionally noticed at the very least 5 jaguars within the reserve.

According to Zeng, Huawei has carried out Tech4Nature tasks in 46 protected areas on 4 continents, using digital expertise to guard their iconic ecosystems akin to forests, wetlands, and oceans.

“I hope to collaborate with more partners to fully leverage the empowering role of technology and protect our homeland of Earth together,” Zeng stated.

The Tech4Nature venture is a element of the Belt and Road cooperation between China and Latin America, which goals to sow the seeds of hope for a greater future within the hearts of many individuals.

“I hope that in 30 or 50 years, the jungle as we know will continue to exist and that we have these sanctuaries where life will continue to exist, prosper and develop,” Cervera stated. “I am still a bit optimistic.”

(Wang Pan and Liang Xizhi in Shenzhen, Zhu Yubo in Santiago additionally contributed to the story.)

(Video reporters: Chen Yao, Wu Hao, Ma Xiaocheng, Liang Xizhi; Video editors: Hong Ling, Zheng Qingbin, Zhang Nan, Zhou Yang, Hong Yan.)■