Dailycsr.com – 14 June 2018 – Cisco and Dimension Data has been in a partnership for twenty seven years delivering to the world a “greater good”. Both of them harbours a “shared passion” for conserving the “wildlife heritage” with the help of technology, whereby in the year of 2015, the companies in a joint venture introduced “Connected Conservation”.
 
The project aimed to protect the rhinos, whereby putting an end to their poaching with the help of “a unique solution”. A pilot trial took place in an adjacent territory of South Africa’s Kruger National Park, which is a “private game reserve”. Within a span of two years from the project’s introduction, it has been collecting “resounding success”, as the “Connected Conservation” effort brought down 96% of poaching within the territory.
 
With the successful track record, the Connected Conservation has been expanded into various other regions of Africa in an attempt to save “more species of animals”. Moreover, the project will specifically target elephant protection in “Zambia and Mozambique”, along with protecting rhinos and elephants in Kenya.
 
Furthermore, Cisco Systems Inc. informs:
“We’re replicating Connected Conversation in other reserves to not only protect the rhino, but also conserve other endangered species globally such as elephants, lions, pangolin, tigers in India and Asia, and even sea rays, sharks and whales in the ocean”.
 
Inching Towards a Collected Dream
The project expansion is a proof of moving closer to its aim of “eradicating all forms of poaching” which would also take care of the trading of elephants’ tusks and rhino’s horn across international borders.
 
In fact, the “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species”, in short CITES, have stated that ivory trading is at its leak, whereby marking “an all-time high”. As a result, it is high time that actions are taken to protect endangered species.
 
Successful Solution
The pilot trial of Connected Conservation shows that the programme has been successful in reducing the poaching of rhinos in an “innovative approach”. The programme allows the animals to roam around freely in their natural habitats without disturbance, instead the technology tracks the “movement of people” whereby monitoring “potential poachers”.
 
Among various other measures taken to protect the animals from being hunted, there are “dehorning” and sensor insertion in the horn as well as under the skin. These initiatives does not allow the reserve rangers to reach the animals in time, as by the time they arrive at the spot to rescue the animals, the latter dies in the hands of the poachers and the “rhino horn” and “elephant tusks” fall prey to poaching.
 
The “Connected Conservation Pilot” used an amalgam of Cisco’s technology starting from “digital infrastructure, hybrid cloud” to “digital workplace, and cybersecurity” and overcame various issues that limit the remotely situated game reserves like “manual security processes (lock and key), very basic access control, a lack of basic IT infrastructure, limited communications capabilities” while the harsh weather conditions and their ever changing patterns add to the struggle.
 
References:
3blmedia.com

Dailycsr.com – 19 September 2016 – Given the growing importance of CSR agenda in corporate society, many companies may come up with “bold plans” of evolving the “workplace giving” programme. In such situations, our mind and emotion mingling together may generate a certain amount of excitement as one broods over the concept of reaching out to people with a “more authentic impact”, be it the people present in your business or that of your community.
 
According to Nicole Campbell, having a clear vision of the process involved in creating a workplace with the embedded “authentic culture of Goodness” which the employees get to experience on a “day-to-day” basis, is not enough. Even though, the intention might be to refocus on the model of “giving”, while making volunteering activities the “key drivers” for recruiting, retaining and engaging the employees, it lacks something that will allow the pre-conceived ideas to be realised successfully.
 
Benevity’s “Principal of Goodness Consulting”, Nicole Campbell, writes that any decisions taken by the authority of any company which will create an impact on the organisation, even the positive ones, requires to be “communicated effectively”. Likewise, the stakeholders too will feel the wave of excitement and share the same enthusiasm.
 
Only a “strong business case” can compel the investors and stakeholders alike to take a step beyond the established norms to bring about a change in the ways things have been done, whereby “to make a meaningful progress”. The science of behavioural psychology confirms that logical plan helps decision makers to take crucial decision, yet “it’s not enough”, for Campbell continues:
“It creates understanding, but doesn’t necessarily offer motivation. Likewise, giving an emotional reason for why your program should evolve is crucial, but again, not enough. It instills passion but doesn’t provide direction”.
 
In order to create a full proof business case, one needs to “appeal to both logic and emotion”; the said balance is compared to the “metaphor of the elephant and the rider”, by Jonathan Haidt, a “social psychologist”.
 
Haidt introduced the said idea in his book named “The Happiness Hypothesis”.
 
 
 
 
 
References:
ethicalperformance.com