Namibia is hosting the inaugural Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) congress.

Namibia, with a clear focus on promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilisation of resources, adopted the SMART approach in all its protected areas to enhance monitoring in those areas.

The digital technology-driven Spatial Monitoring and Reporting tool has, for over a decade, supported tens of thousands of conservation practitioners in protecting wildlife.

The technology stores and analyses wildlife data for various wildlife management areas, including human wildlife conflict management, law enforcement, conservation management, and high-value species management.

The SMART Steering Committee chairperson, Dr. Richard Bergl, says technology conservation can inform and transparently make management decisions.

Namibia adopted digital technology in 2016 with a pilot in Etosha National Park.

Recognising the potential and effectiveness of the approach, the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism expanded SMART to cover the Kavango and Zambezi parks in 2020.

This implementation enhanced data collection and reporting.

Over 300 delegates from 52 countries are attending the week-long congress.