Vodafone and oil and gas company Cepsa have joined forces to protect and restore the Laguna Primera de Palos in Huelva, a wetland of great ecological value in southwest Spain.

Visited every year by 152 species of birds, of which 61 are under threat, this area is part of the Lagunas de Palos y Las Madres Natural Park and was declared a wetland of international importance in 2006.

Through the agreement, Vodafone will implement IoT technology in the area’s trees to monitor for the early detection of forest fires.

Using artificial intelligence, the sensors can identify the particles produced during the initial combustion of a fire, meaning they can be caught at an early stage. This makes it easier to control and extinguish them quickly, reducing their impact.

The IoT system runs on solar panels and can adapt to any type of wooded environment. The data collected are processed using machine learning tools, so the sensors can therefore get to know the forest smells and vegetation, meaning they can spot any changes early.

“The collaboration with Cepsa allows us to contribute our experience to respond to a problem as important as forest fires and to protect environments as valuable as La Laguna Primera,” said Hugo Barbosa, Vodafone’s head of regional enterprise sales. “This is yet another example of the positive impact that collaboration between companies has in addressing the challenges that matter most to our society.”

The system has already been successfully tested in Asturias and Malaga, as well as further afield in Italy and the UK.

On this occasion, the initiative has been developed within the framework of the restoration project of La Laguna Primera de Palos de la Frontera, launched by Cepsa (www.cepsa.com) in collaboration with the regional government of Andalucía, which pursues ecological recovery, landscape restoration and environmental awareness of the area.

Vodafone (www.vodafone.com) says IoT technology is leading to a diverse range of use cases where it can have an impact in the fight against climate change, from monitoring earthquakes and forests to the human-wildlife conflict and beyond.