Zurich – Our planet is on the verge of a heart attack. And just as medicine often succeeds in stabilizing a sick heart through bypass surgery or other operational techniques, TECH4All believes that technology can help mitigate the negative impacts of human activity on the environment. For greater sustainability, it is essential to form partnerships so that in a collective effort, the human footprint on Mother Earth can be minimized.
TECH4All is a corresponding initiative aimed at providing knowledge, technology, and resources for protected areas around the world to preserve their original flora and fauna. Under the umbrella of this initiative, Huawei has entered into a partnership with the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and has brought a multitude of other actors on board for a program in Switzerland initially set for two years.
A pilot has already been implemented in Switzerland with the vision of refinancing biodiversity measures in protected areas through CO2 certificates. A commercially used region, which is also a natural forest reserve and protected area for capercaillie, was chosen for the project.
Protecting nature and ensuring its financingThe Schwägalp peatland area, owned by the "Grosse Schwägalp" cooperation and managed by the forestry operation at Säntis, aims to promote biodiversity. Forestry interventions primarily protect capercaillie and black grouse.
"The qualification of Schwägalp as a natural forest reserve by the BAFU requires us to apply management practices for the protection and conservation of endangered species. Good governance in this sense is a key criterion that the IUCN applies in its 'Green-List' standard when it comes to accrediting climate-positive initiatives." Alexander Plaschy, operations manager at the forestry operation at Säntis.
In close partnership with Huawei and the Swiss Porini Foundation, the pilot examined the binding of CO2 through a series of suitable management measures. The study was based on the established IUCN "Green-List" standard and expanded it to include the possibility of creating CO2 certificates. Data from biodiversity measures taken for the highly endangered capercaillie were tested for their effectiveness in binding CO2. The advantage of this action: Unlike solutions like CO2 filters or injecting CO2 into soils, wood is a natural resource. The vision is to issue CO2 certificates for nature-based solutions in the future, thanks to which the protection measures can be refinanced.
Nature-based Solutions: Wood Management
Outside of mating and subsequent rearing of young, silvicultural measures are implemented for the protection of the capercaillie, with an understanding of the capercaillie's needs for areas with plenty of light, open structures with flight corridors, and a lot of lying dead wood. To keep the forest open, regular cuts are made. The resulting wood must be permanently bound (for example, in buildings) to be credited as a CO2 certificate. The part of the wood that is traditionally processed into firewood, or left in the forest to rot, e.g., branches, is not credited to the certificates.
Using the wood for construction purposes removes carbon from the forest; at the same time, the forest can bind additional carbon as it regrows, creating a carbon sink.
In the pilot project on the Schwägalp, the carbon sinks were identified and the CO2 binding was calculated. It was investigated to what extent there is potential to create CO2 certificates. These can, in turn, finance further protection measures. At the same time, the data from the studies provide insights that can flow into new biodiversity measures, thus further improving the management of the natural forest reserve to pave the way for its certification according to the "Green-List" standard of the IUCN.
Potential of Technology
CO2 certificates for "Nature-based Solutions" are a first step that can initially be taken in Switzerland but later also globally for climate and environmental protection. When technology comes into play, much more potential is unlocked. The collected data can be managed in the cloud, making it decentralized and accessible for research. Blockchain is suitable for transparent, traceable, and secure transactions of certificates. Monitoring protected areas with drones and sensors collects further data, which can be sent to the cloud in high volumes via 5G, where it can be correlated and evaluated to provide valuable information for management.
For Huawei, Porini, the IUCN, and all other partners on the Schwägalp, projects like this are important milestones to raise awareness among other protected areas for the "Green-List" standard, to open up ways for innovative financing of their climate and environmental protection measures, and to share successes from such a partnership with the public. (Huawei/mc/hfu)
