Wildlife Conservation Tracking in Africa

In the vast and remote landscapes of Africa, traditional wildlife monitoring methods are often too expensive or impractical for conservation organizations, leaving critical gaps in protecting endangered species like rhinos, elephants, lions, and pangolins, among others. This use case demonstrates how LoRaWAN® technology provides a comprehensive solution for real-time wildlife tracking, enabling proactive conservation management that benefits both animal life and communities that share their habitats.

Challenge

The wildlife conservation industry faces critical challenges in protecting endangered species across Africa's vast and remote landscapes.

Traditional satellite tracking systems, while effective, are expensive for many conservation organizations. Additionally, the conservation field operates in extremely remote areas, with some locations requiring 8-hour drives or helicopter access, which makes equipment installation and maintenance extremely challenging.

Key pain points include:

• Poaching pressure: Critically endangered species like rhinos and pangolins face constant threats
• Limited real-time monitoring: Inability to track animal movements and respond quickly to threats
• Cost constraints: Satellite tracking systems are more expensive in terms of data consumption
• Infrastructure challenges: Remote locations with limited connectivity options

The city needed a solution that would not only solve immediate lighting challenges but also provide a platform for long-term growth without vendor lock-in, ensuring the investment would remain viable for years to come.

Solution

Africa Wildlife Tracking (AWT), leader in solutions for animal tracking and conservation of the natural environment, developed a solution utilizing LoRa technology to create a comprehensive wildlife monitoring and conservation system that addresses the unique challenges of remote African conservation environments.

This company pioneered the use of GPS LoRa tracking devices adapted for different animal species, including neck-mounted collars for animals like lions and elephants, leg bracelets or horn pods for rhinos, and specialized tags for pangolins. The devices communicate through LoRa gateways that offer flexible connectivity options including Ethernet, Starlink, radio links, or cellular connections, making them suitable for the most remote locations.

Data management is handled through the LORIOT LoRaWAN Network Server, which provides a unified platform that can integrate multiple gateway manufacturers and offer real-time monitoring capabilities, delivering efficient data transmission than traditional satellite tracking while significantly reducing operational costs.

The system extends beyond animal tracking to include comprehensive reserve management capabilities such as fence breach detection, water source monitoring, and perimeter security alerts.

The system extends beyond animal tracking to include comprehensive reserve management capabilities such as fence breach detection, water source monitoring, and perimeter security alerts.

This holistic approach enables conservation organizations to monitor animal movements in real-time, alert communities when animals approach villages, deploy rangers proactively, and make data-driven management decisions for reserves spanning hundreds of thousands of hectares.

"We're dealing in remote areas where if you have problems it's very complex. LORIOT provides a streamlined service that brings together multiple gateway systems onto one platform. The robustness of the system allows us to integrate different LoRa gateways from various manufacturers, and the data services are streamlined - we can access the gateways through the dashboard to monitor if systems are online and interface easily, which is crucial when working in such challenging environments." , said Hadrien Haupt, Research and product development at AWT

The Return

The LoRa-based wildlife tracking solution delivers significant advantages:

• Lower operational costs, making conservation technology accessible to smaller reserves and organizations with limited budgets
• Real-time alerts for human-wildlife conflict prevention
• Comprehensive sanctuary management including security and infrastructure monitoring
• Reduced installation complexity with plug-and-play setup
• Prevention of wildlife disasters by continuously monitoring migration patterns and critical resources like water sources.

The project supports multiple United Nations'sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Conclusion

Importantly, the technology fosters collaborative relationships with local communities by providing them with early warning systems when animals approach villages, enabling them to take preventive measures rather than reactive ones. This approach helps communities understand and adapt to living harmoniously with wildlife, supporting both conservation goals and rural livelihoods.