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- There are a variety of tech tools being implemented or prioritised in South African National Parks.
- These tools are meant to clamp down on poaching and improve the experience for tourists.
- Some of the tools are being rolled out in the Kruger National park before being implemented elsewhere.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
There are a variety of tech tools that are being rolled out or are being prioritised in South Africa’s National Parks with the goal of clamping down on poachers and improving the experience of tourists.
The Kruger National Park has been used to test some of these tools, with the view to rolling them out more widely in national parks across the country.
This is according to South African National Parks (SANParks) spokesperson Isaac Phaahla, who explained the technology priorities for national parks in South Africa and some of the tools that are already being tested in the Kruger Park.
The key priorities for enhancing the tourist experience are to make national parks cashless, streamline the online booking process, and improve the internet services that are available.
On the anti-poaching side, advanced camera systems are being rolled out to track vehicles and detect poachers, and running dogs, supported by tech tools, are being used to apprehend poachers.
There was an 11% decrease in rhino killings in South Africa over the first six months of the year, as compared to the first six months of 2022, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) announced this month. There has been a decrease in rhino poaching in the Kruger Park, but a concerning shift to provincial and private reserves.
There were still 42 rhinos killed in the Kruger National Park between January and June this year, and 231 rhinos were killed across the country. There have been convictions of 31 poaching offenders so far this year.
By testing anti-poaching tools in the Kruger Park, Phaahla said there had been a realisation that they could provide assistance elsewhere.
"We have realised that it is possible that it can work," he said.
Anti-poaching crackdown
Here is a breakdown of the tech priorities for SANParks and the projects in the pipeline according to Phaahla.
SANParks has a variety of tech tools that are being used in National Parks to combat poachers.
The most effective way to capture poachers has been through the use of "free-running hounds", explained Phaahla.
Dogs, fitted with tracking collars and supported by helicopters are released when poachers are spotted in an area to track them down and capture them.
Phaahla said this method had been used for 98% of the recent poacher arrests made in South Africa.
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In addition to this, Phaahla explained that cameras were being rolled out that read the licence plate numbers of cars to check if they had been stolen.
"We have them at the gate and intersections, especially in areas where there is a high concentration of rhinos," he said.
He said that two people had already been arrested as a result of these cameras. They were driving a Hilux that was flagged by the cameras as having been stolen.
All of the information within the camera is relayed to a joint operation centre.
A poacher detection system that uses radar was also launched in the Kruger National Park a few years ago.
The wide area surveillance system (WASS) was placed in an area with a high concentration of rhinos in the Kruger National Park and is able to detect and track human movement.
"It is a system that is normally used in the ocean to monitor the movement of vessels, but it has been adapted to the conditions of the Kruger National Park," said Phaahla.
Tourism initiatives
In addition to the anti-poaching measures, SANParks is looking at using technology to improve the experience of tourists in South African national parks.
SANParks is looking to improve the online booking process to enable ease of access to national parks and cut down on the paperwork at the gate.
"People still have to fill in some forms when they get to the gate of any park," said Phaahla.
"We need to upgrade so that it becomes easier for people to transact online."
For those people who still want to transact at the gate, their cash may soon be no good at SANParks, as they are looking to go cashless.
"We still take cash at the gate, but we want to move to a state where we have a cashless system for customers," Phaahla said.
The minister added that this was the way of the future.
Network performance in the rural areas where SANParks operates is also an issue that the body is looking at fixing. Phaahla said introducing satellite internet services was an option being considered.
There are currently multiple tenders out by SANParks to improve their technology services, ITWeb reported.
