In May 2018, Dimension Data and Cisco announced new plans to take the technology to other conservation hotspots in Africa. Work has already begun on a reserve in Zambia and is about to start in Kenya, and then Mozambique. In Kenya, the focus is on both rhinos and elephants. The other two countries are focused on elephants only.
While the South African pilot project was funded by Dimension Data and Cisco, the newer projects involve a mix of government-run and private parks, and will be run along more commercial lines, according to Rowan.
Pilot project to protect rhinos announced
For 27 years, Dimension Data and Cisco have been partners in delivering on a greater good for the world. In 2015, with a shared passion for protecting wildlife heritage through technology, we launched Connected Conservation. The goal was to help protect and stop the poaching of rhinos using a unique solution, starting with a pilot in a private game reserve adjacent to the Kruger National Park in South Africa.
Due to this success, today we are pleased to announce that in 2018 Dimension Data and Cisco will be expanding the project into more regions in Africa to protect more species of animals. Specifically, we will be rolling it out to Zambia and Mozambique, to protect the elephant, and Kenya, to protect both the elephant and rhino.
Working alongside these dedicated Indonesian NGOs, we strive to increase the population of Sumatran rhinos by monitoring and protecting rhinos and their habitats through Rhino and Wildlife Protection Units, investigating and preventing wildlife crime, breeding the species at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, and working with local communities to replant rhino habitat and build support for conservation.
The pilot program (which launched across two sites in 2018) has been successful. IRF collaborates with YABI, IRI, Way Kambas National Park and local communities and farmer groups to expand critical habitat for Sumatran rhinos. To date, we have planted 50 hectares (or 124 acres) at two sites (about three quarters the size of Disneyland).
The Asian Rhino Specialist Group (AsRSG) announced that the greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), found only in India, Nepal and Bhutan, has increased to 4,014 individuals after a biannual survey was completed in early 2022. The population is growing largely due to the governments of India and Nepal creating habitat for rhinos, while also preventing poaching.
Indian Rhino Vision 2020 (IRV2020), the program established in 2005 for the purpose of increasing the rhino population in Assam to 3,000 by establishing populations in seven protected areas, came to a close in 2021 with a final translocation of two rhinos from Kaziranga National Park to Manas National Park. Thanks to IRV2020, rhinos are now found in four Protected Areas in Assam: Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Orang National Park, Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park.
With NGO partners, including IRF, the government of Assam (a state in northeastern India), initiated translocations of rhinos within protected areas of Assam to give rhinos more room to breed. The state government also closes all rhino bearing protected areas in Assam to visitors during breeding season.
"In Costa Rica, IEG is supporting us to build a pilot project for establishing a Natural Asset Company. This will deepen the economic analysis of giving nature its economic value, as well as to continue mobilizing financial flows to conservation. All of this, in a key moment when we have to meet social and economic needs on our people and comply with what science tells us about the 30x30 goal, on protecting at least 30 percent of land and oceans by 2030."
Johannesburg, South Africa and Armonk, NY - 19 Sep 2017: IBM (NYSE: IBM), MTN, a leading African telecommunications provider, Wageningen University (WU) in the Netherlands and Prodapt, today announced they are harnessing IBM Internet of Things (IoT) technology as part of the MTN Connected Wildlife Solution. The solution will help predict threats and combat the poaching of endangered rhinos at Welgevonden Game Reserve in South Africa, with the intent to expand the solution to other reserves in future.
Wageningen University (the Netherlands) is a leading life sciences university. Its Resource Ecology Group, which is the partner in this exciting pilot project, brings together world-leading researchers on savanna ecology, livestock science and environmental sciences from this University. It is working closely with the mathematicians of Leiden University, ASTRON (especially radio-astronomers), sensor scientists from the University of Twente, and increasingly with data scientists of the Technical University, Eindhoven. The Dutch side of this project is financed by NWO (the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research). For more projects see www.wur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Chair-groups/Environmental-Sciences/Resource-Ecology-Group.htm
In this pilot project that will be judged on whether the population of horned animals in two parks in the country increases, the Washington-based development lender will issue a $150 million bond March 31.
The Sumatran rhino is probably the rarest and most endangered large land mammal on earth, having been extirpated from more than 99% of its former range. The Indonesian Government reports that there are fewer than 80 individuals remaining, whilst the latest report released by the IUCN in preparation for CITES CoP 19 in Panama paints a more cynical picture, warning that there are just 34-47 individuals surviving. Furthermore, as human encroachment increases into their habitats, any remaining rhinos wander in search of more remote tracts of forest. This makes finding, accurately counting, and protecting them even more complicated and time-consuming: time that we simply do not have.
Save the Rhino International is a strategic partner of the Sumatran Rhino Survival Alliance and has been supporting the work of the RPUs and the reforestation projects in WKNP. Most recently, funds have also been provided to purchase camera traps to help monitor individual Sumatran rhinos, as well as radio telecommunications and satellite phones to aid the dissemination of information in the remotest of rhino habitats.
MissionThe F-22 Raptor is combination of stealth, supercruise, maneuverability, and integrated avionics, coupled with improved supportability, represents an exponential leap in warfighting capabilities. The Raptor performs both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions allowing full realization of operational concepts vital to the 21st century Air Force.The F-22, a critical component of the Global Strike Task Force, is designed to project air dominance, rapidly and at great distances and defeat threats attempting to deny access to our nation's Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps. The F-22 cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft.FeaturesA combination of sensor capability, integrated avionics, situational awareness, and weapons provides first-kill opportunity against threats. The F-22 possesses a sophisticated sensor suite allowing the pilot to track, identify, shoot and kill air-to-air threats before being detected. Significant advances in cockpit design and sensor fusion improve the pilot's situational awareness. In the air-to-air configuration the Raptor carries six AIM-120 AMRAAMs and two AIM-9 Sidewinders.
The F-22 has a significant capability to attack surface targets. In the air-to-ground configuration the aircraft can carry two 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munitions internally and will use on-board avionics for navigation and weapons delivery support. In the future air-to-ground capability will be enhanced with the addition of an upgraded radar and up to eight small diameter bombs. The Raptor will also carry two AIM-120s and two AIM-9s in the air-to-ground configuration.Advances in low-observable technologies provide significantly improved survivability and lethality against air-to-air and surface-to-air threats. The F-22 brings stealth into the day, enabling it not only to protect itself but other assets.The F-22 engines produce more thrust than any current fighter engine. The combination of sleek aerodynamic design and increased thrust allows the F-22 to cruise at supersonic airspeeds (greater than 1.5 Mach) without using afterburner -- a characteristic known as supercruise. Supercruise greatly expands the F-22 's operating envelope in both speed and range over current fighters, which must use fuel-consuming afterburner to operate at supersonic speeds.The sophisticated F-22 aerodesign, advanced flight controls, thrust vectoring, and high thrust-to-weight ratio provide the capability to outmaneuver all current and projected aircraft. The F-22 design has been extensively tested and refined aerodynamically during the development process.The F-22's characteristics provide a synergistic effect ensuring F-22A lethality against all advanced air threats. The combination of stealth, integrated avionics and supercruise drastically shrinks surface-to-air missile engagement envelopes and minimizes enemy capabilities to track and engage the F-22. The combination of reduced observability and supercruise accentuates the advantage of surprise in a tactical environment.The F-22 will have better reliability and maintainability than any fighter aircraft in history. Increased F-22 reliability and maintainability pays off in less manpower required to fix the aircraft and the ability to operate more efficiently.BackgroundThe Advanced Tactical Fighter entered the Demonstration and Validation phase in 1986. The prototype aircraft (YF-22 and YF-23) both completed their first flights in late 1990. Ultimately the YF-22 was selected as best of the two and the engineering and manufacturing development effort began in 1991 with development contracts to Lockheed/Boeing (airframe) and Pratt & Whitney (engines). EMD included extensive subsystem and system testing as well as flight testing with nine aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The first EMD flight was in 1997 and at the completion of its flight test life this aircraft was used for live-fire testing.The program received approval to enter low rate initial production in 2001. Initial operational and test evaluation by the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center was successfully completed in 2004. Based on maturity of design and other factors the program received approval for full rate production in 2005. Air Education and Training Command, Air Combat Command and Pacific Air Forces are the primary Air Force organizations flying the F-22. The aircraft designation was the F/A-22 for a short time before being renamed F-22A in December 2005.General characteristicsPrimary function: air dominance, multi-role fighterContractor: Lockheed-Martin, BoeingPower plant: two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines with afterburners and two-dimensional thrust vectoring nozzles.Thrust: 35,000-pound class (each engine)Wingspan: 44 feet, 6 inches (13.6 meters)Length: 62 feet, 1 inch (18.9 meters)Height: 16 feet, 8 inches (5.1 meters)Weight: 43,340 pounds (19,700 kilograms) Maximum takeoff weight: 83,500 pounds (38,000 kilograms) Fuel capacity: internal: 18,000 pounds (8,200 kilograms); with 2 external wing fuel tanks: 26,000 pounds (11,900 kilograms)Payload: same as armament air-to-air or air-to-ground loadouts; with or without two external wing fuel tanks.Speed: mach two class with supercruise capabilityRange: more than 1,850 miles ferry range with two external wing fuel tanks (1,600 nautical miles)Ceiling: above 50,000 feet (15 kilometers)Armament: one M61A2 20-millimeter cannon with 480 rounds, internal side weapon bays carriage of two AIM-9 infrared (heat seeking) air-to-air missiles and internal main weapon bays carriage of six AIM-120 radar-guided air-to-air missiles (air-to-air loadout) or two 1,000-pound GBU-32 JDAMs and two AIM-120 radar-guided air-to-air missiles (air-to-ground loadout)Crew: oneUnit cost: $143 millionInitial operating capability: December 2005Inventory: total force, 183 (Current as of August 2022)Point of ContactAir Combat Command, Public Affairs Office; 115 Thompson St., Suite 210; Langley AFB, VA 23665-1987; DSN 574-5007 or 757-764-5007; e-mail: accpa.operations@us.af.mil 2ff7e9595c
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