ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, IBM
(NYSE: IBM) and the World Wide Fund For Nature - Germany (WWF) announced they will work
together to explore developing a new solution to support the
monitoring of keystone species, starting with the critically
endangered African forest elephant.
Combining IBM's expertise in sustainability and technology with
WWF's extensive experience in wildlife conservation, the new
solution will be designed to utilize AI-powered visual inspection
to enhance elephant tracking, supporting the accurate
identification of individual elephants from camera trap photos. The
goal of this solution is to help support key conservation efforts
of African forest elephants, which have been shown to increase
carbon storage in their forest habitats .
In the future, this technology may also be used by organizations
to assess the financial value of nature's contributions to people
(NCP) provided by African forest elephants, such as carbon
sequestration 'services', recognizing the important role they play
in maintaining healthy ecosystems.
The African forest elephant has experienced an over 80% decrease
in their populations in recent years due to habitat loss and
poaching in the Congo Basin. As
businesses work to address climate change, supporting nature
restoration can play a critical role in reducing carbon emissions
in the atmosphere.
By harnessing the power of technology to track and value natural
capital, organizations can unlock new opportunities to support
climate change mitigation efforts, while also identifying new
sustainable finance investments.
"At IBM, we strive to make a lasting, positive impact on the
world in business, our environment, and the communities in which we
work and live. Our collaboration with WWF marks a significant step
forward in this effort. By combining our expertise in technology
and sustainability with WWF's conservation expertise, we aim to
leverage the power of technology to create a more sustainable
future." - Oday Abbosh,
Global Sustainability Services Leader, IBM Consulting
As part of this collaboration, IBM Consulting worked with WWF to
explore opportunities for innovation, aligning WWF's conservation
initiatives with IBM's sustainability and technology expertise.
IBM's own software, IBM Maximo Visual Inspection (MVI), will
be used in this collaboration. Leveraging MVI's AI-powered visual
inspection and modeling capabilities, the solution aims to analyze
images from camera traps and film to identify individual African
forest elephants with greater accuracy. Currently, the use case
focuses on head and tusk-related image recognition, similar to a
fingerprint for humans.
"Our technology will play a crucial role in streamlining the
process of identifying and accounting for the individual elephants.
This is an exciting new use of IBM software, which in combination
with our consulting services and WWF's deep knowledge of the
natural world can help create new ways to accelerate organizations'
sustainability efforts." - Kendra
Dekeyrel, VP of ESG and Asset Management at IBM
In addition, the two organizations aim to leverage IBM
Environmental Intelligence to detect above-ground biomass and
vegetation levels in specific areas where the elephants are
present. This will enable more accurate predictions of the
elephants' future locations to better quantify the NCP services
they provide. Ultimately,this will help the process of quantifying
and tokenizing the value of carbon services provided by the African
forest elephant, providing organizations with insights they can use
to further drive sustainability efforts.
Harnessing the power of natural capital for
sustainability
IBM and WWF are committed to exploring innovative products and
services to help organizations harness natural capital to
accelerate their sustainability progress.
The concept of natural capital refers to the world's stocks of
natural assets, including geology, soil, air, water, and all
wildlife. These natural assets provide a range of ecosystem
services and NCP, which are the direct and indirect ways nature
contributes to human well-being.
For instance, a single African forest elephant, roaming freely
in its natural habitat, can increase the net carbon capture
capacity of the forest by almost 250 acres. This is equivalent to
removing from the atmosphere a year's worth of emissions from 2,047
cars. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), this
can translate into a dollar value of up to $1.75 million per elephant, considering the
carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services it provides.
"Counting African forest elephants is both difficult and costly.
The logistics are complex and the resulting population numbers are
not precise. Being able to identify individual elephants from
camera trap images with the help of AI has the potential to be a
game-changer. With AI, we will be able to monitor individual
animals in space and time, giving us more robust and detailed
population estimates and allowing for performance-based
conservation payments, such as wildlife credits. The spatial data
will also show us where these elephants choose to move – thus
enabling us to protect these wildlife corridors." - Dr.
Thomas Breuer, WWF Germany - African Forest Elephant
Coordinator
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than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data,
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inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more
information.
Media Contact:
Lily O'Brien
IBM
lilyobrien@ibm.com
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