Page 246 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Executive Summary

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

The vulnerability faced by animals and other terrestrial species is unquestionable. The expanding urban
terrain has highlighted the need for protection of all species living in cities as well as for those at the brink of
bearing the effects of human civilization.

As humans are further encroaching on many forest areas, many species find themselves to be at the mercy
of human activities. This has resulted to fragmentation of natural habitats and put animals in the danger of
road accidents, poaching and other mishaps.
These rise in these incidences, goes against Sustainable Development Goal 15 which strives to ensure the
conservation and sustainable use of terrestrial land and forests along with prevention of loss of biodiversity.

This case study presents an overview of a study on wildlife monitoring conducted by the China Academy of
Transportation Sciences and Changbai Mountain Academy of Sciences. This case study will also examine
other technologies which can be used for animal protection and nature conservation.

1.2 Challenge and Response

The Changbai Mountain National Nature Reserve is located in the Jilin province of Northeast China. More
than 1225 fauna species are found in this region. Nearly 4% of the species in this regions have been declared
protected species including the sable, Siberian roe deer, and Siberian weasel. Amur tigers are also found
here.
There is a fenced four-way expressway called JiYan expressway. This expressway bisects two National Nature
Reserves, namely the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve and the Wangqing Nature Reserve. Between these
reserves and along the expressway, certain wildlife crossing structures have been built to allow for the
movement of wildlife.

The study in China on which this document is based, is the first of its kind to monitor wildlife movements
through a tunnel along expressway using infra-red camera surveillance technology in China.

Given the evident encroachment into wildlife areas, this case study based on the findings of the pilot project
in Changbai Mountain National reserve, aims to analyze the plausible deterrents for animals not using the
crossing structures and will highlight other technologies which can be used to safeguard animals.

2 Implementation

For this pilot project, infra-red cameras were set at equal distances apart along the tunnel and other crossing
structures.
These cameras were put up from between the following time periods:
(i) 16 September-15 December, 2011

(ii) 10 May - 26 July 2012
(iii) 30 April to 11 December 2013.
In order to increase the chances of detecting wildlife, the cameras were installed at the known locations of
animal sightings. Some cameras were put on trees at a height of 0.5m to be able to gather high resolution
photos of both medium and large wildlife species. Appropriate changes to camera angles were made based
on weather changes including snow and other foreseen obstructions.

The data from this project was collected and recorded in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for later reference.

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