Mission codename: DeforestACTION
Millions of young people using geo-spatial technology to save the forest.
Borneo
Borneo, world’s third largest island, was half century ago almost entirely covered by tropical evergreen broadleaved forest. But, illegal logging and conversion to oil palm plantations has reduced forest cover dramatically, victimizing orangutan populations and heavily contributing to green house gases built up.
Looking for new solutions
According to the WWF, 75% of the timber is harvested illegally in Indonesia. The scientific and political communities agree about the magnitude of this problem and the need for forest conservation, but along side with scientific reports and political discussions, new solutions are urgently needed as everyday large areas of forest disappear. We need immediate and active action!
DeforestACTION
DeforestACTION is a global action project involving millions of young people around the world saving the world forest. The 'agents' will monitor the forest and report to the world using a WebGIS environment (Earthwatchers application) and up-to-date satellite images. The project will also replant a forest on currently degraded land. The ground activities are the key to the success: 15 heroes are being chosen to come and live in Borneo, in the local community long house and do the field checks, replant and help with orangutan rescues (www.deforestaction.org and www.anactionmovie.com).
Geo-ICT environment
The Earthwatchers application is an extreme geo-ICT environment where millions of highly 'demanding' users need to persistently access terabytes of geo-information. Geodan is developing high performance tools to access and report on the data. Everyday, satellites orbiting the earth gather large amounts of data but most of it is never analyzed. We will make all this data available (building upon our experience from www.edugis.nl with large datasets and cloud computing). The forest to be monitored is divided in 1 km x 1 km cells and assigned to the individual agents.
Stop illigal deforestation
These will check their patch for land changes and can collaborate in a social network environment. Once multiple agents identify deforestation in a certain location, the local team in Borneo will physically explore the site with the local authorities to stop the logging and confiscate the equipment. We have the commitment of the local authorities who want to stop illegal deforestation, but need real-time advice on where the activities are occurring.
Deforestation
Deforestation is a complex and huge issue, but now we have the tools for everyone to participate and do a part. We hope that within a few years we’ve been able to reduce or to stop illegal deforestation in Borneo. In addition, this project will transform education by engaging students in real projects that matter and in collaborating across the planet.
Additional links
- Willie Smits restores a rainforest (Ted.com)
- Collaborate for change
- TakingITGlobal, CGE, and DeforestAction (livestream.com)
- Orangutan Outreach Nederland
