Huawei joined forces with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to press for the increased development and adoption of new technologies that could better support environmental protection goals.

On the occasion of the World Environment Day on 5 June, the China-based vendor and IUCN held the ‘Tech for a Better Planet’ online summit to demonstrate how technology can “vastly improve nature conservation outcomes”.

Tao Jingwen, director of the corporate sustainable development committee for Huawei, described digital technology as a “key enabler of environmental protection”. He called for an “open and collaborative market environment” to ensure that technology can be best applied to industry and elsewhere to “help build a green planet”.

Huawei and IUCN have already launched the global Tech4Nature project. According to the vendor, since 2020 the partners have initiated pilot projects based on the IUCN Green List Standard in Switzerland, Spain, China, Mexico, and Mauritius.

For example, underwater cameras with special lenses and sensors have been deployed in Mauritius to monitor coral reef ecosystems. The data is then transported via a 4G network and analysed using artificial intelligence-based systems.

The IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas is described as a global standard of best practice for area-based conservation.