Tech watch: AI is helping protect wildlife and nature in Africa

From the newsletter

According to our monthly tech watch, Aberdare National Park in Kenya is piloting an artificial intelligence (AI) system to protect eastern black rhino calves from hyena predation. The system utilises machine learning and ultrasound technology to detect and deter hyenas, which are a threat to young rhinos. It aims to facilitate the reintroduction of rhinos into the national park. 

• The AI-powered ultrasonic deterrent system detects wildlife intrusions in real-time, using object detection and distance sensors. When a hyena is detected, the system emits a high-frequency sound that is inaudible to humans and most animals but repels hyenas.

• Other emerging conservation technologies in this month’s Tech Watch are Estonia’s Biodiversity Valuator, Microsoft’s GIRAFFE AI for identifying individual wildlife, Kenya’s REDD+ carbon registry and Digital Earth Africa’s satellite-based Wetlands Monitoring Workflow, offering live wetlands data.

More details

• The AI-powered ultrasonic deterrent was developed by the Austrian firm IT-Revolutions and led by the Rhino Ark Kenya Charitable Trust in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service. It analyses footage from cameras installed along wildlife corridors. It is trained to distinguish hyenas from other species and improves its accuracy over time through self-learning algorithms. This method provides a non-lethal means of predator management, aiming to create a safer environment for rhino calves.

• Estonia-based technology firm Endangered Wildlife has launched a platform that calculates the financial value of biodiversity. Named the Biodiversity Valuator, the tool uses artificial intelligence and scientific data to assign monetary worth to ecosystems and species in specific locations. It aims to help governments and companies account for environmental loss. The tool models ecological functions and replacement costs and economic dependencies such as tourism, with results presented in monetary terms.

• In June, Microsoft launched a new open-source artificial intelligence tool to support the conservation of endangered wildlife in East Africa. The tool, named Generalized Image-based Re-Identification using Artificial Intelligence for Fauna Feature Extraction (GIRAFFE), identifies individual giraffes by analysing their unique spot patterns, achieving over 90 percent accuracy. The tool uses computer vision to automate animal identification in photographs as opposed to previous manually matched spot patterns to track individual giraffes.

• Kenya launched Africa’s first REDD+ registry in August, a digital platform that will track, verify and manage forest carbon projects to improve transparency in carbon markets. The system is designed to close long-standing gaps in accountability, prevent double counting of emissions reductions and ensure fair benefit-sharing with forest communities. The registry was launched alongside the Kenya REDD+ Nesting Guidelines, in an initiative supported by the United Kingdom Government and Conservation International under the Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions programme. 

• African countries are onboarding a new Wetlands Monitoring Workflow tool developed by Digital Earth Africa. The tool was first launched at the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in Victoria Falls in July 2025. First use cases have been reported in South Africa, Senegal, Kenya and Uganda. The tool uses four decades of satellite data to help conservationists build live wetlands inventories, enabling them to map ecosystem changes and take action. It delivers live, low-cost wetlands data and builds conservation expertise, planning and transboundary collaboration. 

Our take

• If we treat AI as a workforce replacement, we risk sidelining rangers, ecologists and trackers whose deep field knowledge machines cannot replicate. 

• The tools should be used as a force multiplier and not a shortcut that cuts people out. AI cannot smell poachers or earn a community’s trust. What it can do is give local experts time to focus on urgent threats. 

• But that only works if we invest in digital skills, field-ready training and infrastructure. Without that, we risk creating a sleek system that leaves the people who know the land best behind.