Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) and Connected Conservation Foundation (CCF) are safeguarding Kenya’s most vulnerable species and natural resources with Africa’s largest landscape-wide IoT conservation network.

The project is evolving wildlife and natural resource conservation by leveraging LoRaWan IoT sensors and networks to collect, monitor and analyse real-time environmental data on a captivating scale. These data are coupled with analytics and conservation tools to help safeguard wildlife populations, promote peace, and empower community-led conservation.

NRT’s IoT conservation network was the first of its kind in Kenya and has been made possible by CCF bringing together a coalition of private and public sector partners including Cisco, Actility, 51 Degrees and EarthRanger (AI2).

LoRaWan IoT technology has emerged as a game-changer for natural reserves that require robust signal coverage over vast and hostile environments, which often have zero connectivity.

This widely used conservation technology allows battery-powered sensors to communicate via a long-range, low data rate connection, resulting in longer battery life. Additionally LoRa sensors are a fraction of the cost of satellite-enabled options, transforming the way conservation programmes operate.

The IoT network covers 22 of NRT’s community-led conservancies and four private reserves – Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Ol Jogi, Loisaba and Borana – with plans to bring more on board to increase coverage across the region. Over 190 sensors have been deployed to all parks, with a further 250 scheduled.

“This IoT network is a game-changer for conservation efforts in northern Kenya,” said NRT’s CEO Tom Lalampaa. “We can now monitor our conservancies on a scale that was never possible. It is empowering our community-led conservancies to share, make decisions and collaborate in their conservation efforts.”

Sophie Maxwell, CCF executive director, added: “This cross-conservancy, IoT conservation network is changing the way private and community-led conservancies work together. Shared real-time information for large connected landscapes is helping secure threatened species, manage essential ecosystem services and benefit local communities.”

Data from the ranger, vehicle and wildlife sensors are helping rangers monitor and respond to threats to prevent poaching, share information on vulnerabilities, bolster conservation management strategies, and promote peace and security between ethnic communities.

Now Kenya is one of the few places in the world where black rhino populations are on the rise. But with this success comes an urgency to establish safe and connected rangelands for these critically endangered species to roam. This project has enabled innovative ways to monitor the rhino population and has helped bring the removal of fences between conservancies, creating larger, connected habitats for rhinos.

“Our ongoing work with CCF, and other partners to deliver the largest landscape-wide IoT conservation network is part of Cisco’s Partnering for Purpose initiative,” said Chris Panzeca, senior director at Cisco. “This network demonstrates the power of innovative technologies to support conservation efforts. Together, we are driving positive impact, creating safe havens for animals and empowering local communities.”

Last year saw extreme drought in East Africa, sweeping away grasslands, water, local food and animals. NRT has huge problems managing its natural resources sustainably and pre-empting and reducing both human and wildlife conflicts.

The IoT network supports the plugin of livestock and environmental sensors to monitor foraging conditions, track livestock movements, and observe water levels that threaten the successful co-existence of wildlife and local people.

Additionally, this natural resource tracking data should help validate the effectiveness of NRT’s protected areas and help unlock revenue streams by verifying community rangeland management for carbon projects.

Combined, this massive IoT undertaking should contribute vital digital infrastructure to help Kenyan partners measure and achieve the global biodiversity targets set out at COP15 to protect 30% of the planet for nature by 2030.

The LoRaWan management is done using Actility’s ThingPark platform to manage gateways, integrate sensors, monitor network operations and regulate the flow of data to application servers.

“Few individuals readily connect wildlife conservation and IoT,” said Olivier Hersent, CEO of Actility. “However, the pairing is indeed a perfect match. Wildlife protection is an ideal use case for LPWAN IoT, given the vast territories to monitor, the necessity for long-lasting, low-cost sensors and the requirement for secure technology to combat poaching. We are delighted and proud to witness LoRaWan and ThingPark playing a pivotal role in supporting this remarkable preservation endeavour.”

NRT says the provision of real-time data, digital radio communications and cross-conservancy network collaboration has helped accomplish a reduction in poaching and human-wildlife conflict. This has helped boost black rhino numbers by 10% in Kenya.

NRT empowers 43 indigenous communities in northern Kenya to manage their conservancies and increase nature-based economies. Fair and transparent access to connectivity and IoT sensors is providing private and local community-led conservancies with a boost in knowledge to prevent poaching, pre-empt human-wildlife conflict and halt habitat loss.

Samuel Lekimaroro, NRT’s director of wildlife protection, said: “These technologies are helping us achieve our goal of securing wildlife populations and bringing peace to the region.”