Data Sources

The system combines data from drones, satellites, camera traps, and geospatial tools to create a comprehensive monitoring framework. This approach can be adapted for other environmental challenges, such as flood monitoring, by integrating relevant data sources specific to those contexts.

  • Reliable access to real-time data from sensors, satellites, drones, and cameras is critical.
  • High-quality sensors and data processing systems must be available to collect and analyze diverse data types.
  • Systems must use compatible formats to integrate data seamlessly.
  • Interconnectivity & interoperability of systems is crucial. 
  • The platform must be software and hardware agnostic.
  • Cybersecurity and intercommunication are crucial.
Working with communities to ensure them sustainable economic activities and justice

The forestry sector is suffering from corruption and is limiting benefits for local and Indigenous communities. Our solution allows local communities to tackle forest illegalities and land rights violations and at the same time to secure their land rights and economic rights over forest resources by monitoring and protecting their territory, reinforcing sustainable development and autonomy.  Data collected through the tool also supports judicial or non-judicial cases when local and indigenous communities suffer human rights abuses. 

  • A good understanding of the current economic activities of the communities is needed 
  • Financial means to engage legal procedures is a must 
  • Collaborate with local partners specialised in legal actions or in sustainable business activities 
  • Parallel advocacy work to secure individual and collective land rights   
  • Sensitization on sustainable economic activities is key for the project success, and it must include all groups of the local or Indigenous community and have specific sensitization for women and girls. 
  • Staff trained or specialised in the different fields (justice/law & sustainable economy) is needed Women and girls are key change agents who have to be fully integrated in projects  
Building strong advocacy networks of local, national and international civil society organisations (CSOs)

Having data collected and analysed through a digital tool is an innovation, although to foster changes and ensure local communities and Indigenous people's protection and sustainable lifestyle the data is used for law enforcement and advocacy purposes. To this end, strong local, national and international advocacy networks are needed to take action against reported abuses and to achieve policy changes. By enabling information to be shared between users and opening up data to the general public, the tool facilitates collaborative working. 

  • Collaborating with CSOs who works on similar topics and share values, visions and goals is essential 
  • Promoting collective data verification and analysis to foster joint responses to alerts and advocacy actions 
  • Maintaining good relationships with a range of institutional actors who know and consider the tool as a valid monitoring tool and support it.  
  • Even if building and strengthening CSOs networks is fundamental, it is important to respect when organisations don’t want to work together and find ways to support each CSO’s work instead of pitting organisations against each other. This requires adaptability in projects and advocacy towards donors.  
  • To ensure that the networks are sustainable, medium- and long-term funding is needed to guarantee that the coordination functions run smoothly (secretariat, coordination of working groups, etc.).  

Adaptable & Efficient Reporting and Monitoring tool

Our solution is based on a digital tool whose goal is to collect and facilitate the analyse of the data sent by community observers and our partners. This tool's efficiency relies on the fact that it is digital, easy to use and low costs for local and Indigenous communities. It enables us to work with hard-to-reach areas around the world, to have quantitative data to support national and international advocacy and to get supporting evidence for legal cases. The adaptability of our solution also lies in the fact that it can be used to monitor a variety of issues (illegal logging - artisanal or industrial, mining, carbon market projects' impact, GBV, etc.), in a variety of contexts.  

  • Sufficient financial resources for the tool to keep running and for the observers to keep apply it 
  • Having a strong technical and development staff team  
  • Building partners’ capacity in using the tool and train community monitors to use it  
  • Ensuring its adaptability to changes in partners' expectations 
  • Having coordination staff team within our organisation and within partners organisations to ensure the efficiency in using the tool 
  • In-person training is the most important thing to ensure the digital tool good use and efficiency. Partners have to be able to understand fully how the tool works and keep being trained for the overall period of the tool implementation 
  • Liase constantly with the partners to ensure the tool and hardwares are working as expected is key 
  • Be aware of all the external factors (political, social, meteorological...)  which can slow down or stop data from being collected on the tool 
  • Ensure that complementary training of environmental law and human rights are proposed to local partners and communities, so that they can take efficient law enforcement actions and access to justice and reparations. 

Working hand in hand with grassroots organisations/Indigenous and local communities

The evidence is building that granting Indigenous peoples and other local communities' control over their territories improves forest protection. This is because they are directly invested in the survival of forests and want to ensure that future generations can continue to live and thrive in them. Yet a lot of development and environmental and climate-related programs are not created in collaboration with the people who will be impacted by them. Therefore, our solution arose from the challenges that grassroots organisations and Indigenous and local communities brought to our attention. Those communities are the ones living all the forests illegalities and land tenure violations therefore by directly tackling their challenge it ensures the solution to be genuine and efficient. Working with them directly helps us to better understand the contexts they are facing and adapt the tool in consequence. 

  • Build strong and lasting relationships with partners and people using the tool 
  • Having an adaptable tool which allows to be reactive to changes  
  • Adequate financial resources  
  • Collaborating with Indigenous and local, grassroots organisations  
  • Building strong relationships requires cultural sensitivity, time and efforts. It is important to listen closely  to stories and challenges people share to be sure that the tools respond to their needs and contexts.  
  • Having beforehand researched on the cultural, traditional and socio-economic context strengthens the collaboration and to make the tool more relevant and impactful. Working with Indigenous-led or locally-led organisations to truly address their challenges 
Community engagement

Communities must benefit from the data collected.

This is shared with communities for collaborative town and conservation planning for peace, security and HWC prevention

Community-led conservancies can share data for collaborative cross landscape decision making

Control over data sharing or privacy

Community stewards must be empowered to collect and provide and manage data

 training of community members for ICT job is important

Technical Support and Training

A holistic digital ecosystem must support landscape scale tool.

 

CCF offer implementation and training. 

Through our partnerships we offer an online course to sustian the technologies

Online Course

Scalability is now key as we are assiting so many parks

EarthRanger

Visualisation platform for real time protected area management data

Long term partnership with the AI2 Team

Data must flow seamlessly from field based hardware through the network into Earth Ranger

Diagnostic information is key to good support and maintenance

LoRaWan Gateways

Previously these have been donated by Cisco Inc

Cisco 5-7 year support 

good robust tools with warrantee support is required to last 5-7 years

Actility LoRaWAN Things Park Network Server

The network server connects sensors, gateways and end-user applications and ensures reliable and secure data routing all along the LoRaWAN network. Along with the Operation Support System (or OSS), they are the brain that controls the complete LoRaWAN network

https://www.actility.com/lorawan-network-server/

It collects data from the LoRaWan Gateways and transports this data from field based sensors on to Node Red which sends data to Earth Ranger.

It can be self managed through training. It is easy replicable.

It can be deployed on-premise or on the cloud

It works extremely well. It is now implemented across 35 parks, with 1000 sensors capacity across sites.