WSIS TalkX - UN World Wildlife Day: ICTs for wildlife conservation

Happy World Wildlife Day!

It is a pleasure to co-host this session with the International Union for Conservation of Nature as we mark the 48th anniversary of the signing of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. 

Protecting wildlife should be everybody's responsibility, and time is of the essence: one million species are at risk of extinction, 10 million hectares of forests are lost annually, and the wildlife trade is the possible cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. What is more, the pandemic has had an impact on tourism in national parks, which in turn has had an impact on anti-poaching work and employment and revenue in local villages. It means the inhabitants are struggling to generate income and some are resorting to poaching to feed their families.

As more and more species face the risk of becoming endangered, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are being increasingly used to protect animals and habitats in innovative ways. I do not believe anyone can doubt the importance of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and 5G in addressing these challenges as they are key to accelerating progress towards every one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

ITU, as the UN specialized agency for ICTs, is at the forefront of this digital transformation. We are leveraging the power of technology in critical areas ranging from smart cities to natural disaster risk reduction, e-waste and energy consumption. ITU supports work on SDGs 13, 14, and 15 — Climate action, Life below water, and Life on land — by allocating and coordinating the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits allowing satellite observations that play a significant role in monitoring oceans, marine life and terrestrial ecosystems. This is something I feel passionate about, and since joining ITU in 2007 I have devoted a lot of energy to raising the importance of digital technologies to fight climate change.

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We can only do this by bringing all stakeholders together – public and private -- to pool our resources for the common good. The annual WSIS Forum is a perfect platform for this discussion. It is the world's largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community and has proved to be an efficient mechanism for information exchange and the coordination of multi-stakeholder implementation activities. I am very pleased that we have started to address this important issue in the WSIS Forum.

I would like to thank IUCN for co-hosting this webinar, and all the panellists for joining us to explore how we can better use ICTs for wildlife conservation, and especially Mr Juan Carlos Vasquez of the CITES Secretariat for acting as moderator.

Thank you.

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