Robinson Crusoe Island
Our Impact
The infamous Robinson Crusoe Island sits in the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, 700km of the coast of Chile. Native wildlife and plant species, above and below the water, make this an UNESCO designated biosphere reserve.
Lenovo upgraded the internet, making it 200 times faster, and created a tech workspace to provide new opportunities for this once isolated island. 16 worldwide volunteers then kickstarted a series of incredible tech-enabled projects, bringing Work For Humankind to life. All whilst doing their day job remotely.
Now, for the first time ever, many local businesses have an online presence, enabling them to boost eco-tourism. A community garden was rebuilt and redeveloped so locals can grow their own food. And new ThinkEdge servers have turned months of conservation work to weeks.
Click here to view the tech workspace
NGO Island Conservation
Robinson Crusoe is globally recognized as having the highest density of unique plant species. Even more than the Galapagos. But this incredible ecosystem is in danger.
Climate change threatens the rock lobsters that sustain the island community. Invasive coatimundi, goats, feral cats, rabbit and rodents have caused a sharp decline in the forest and soil. This is terrible news for the birds, plants and humans that call this place home.
Island Conservation is a non-profit organization (NGO) that has been fighting to preserve this fragile environment for the past decade. This is both for the indigenous people and the native species, such as the Juan Fernandez Firecrown, Masafuera Rayadito, and the Pink-Footed Shearwater birds. However, without modern technology this has been a struggle.
Since the project began, 1.5 TB of camera trap data has been analyzed using AI detection models deployed on a Lenovo AI Edge Server. This has delivered the first population estimates of invasive mammals. Now Island Conservation is significantly closer to their goal of protecting native species – some of which are only found on this island.
And, for the first time, Island Conservation and on-island operational teams have real-time access to field data (geography, flora, fauna) to inform conservation planning and development eradication strategies. Prior to this, the footage had to be flown to mainland Chile for processing…
All this has lead to the improved status of six critically endangered and eleven vulnerable tree species.
