Multi-national | PANORAMA

Delopment of the SIREN App

Fisher using SIREN

AMMCO

This building block is to explain how I developped an App that allow fishers to contribute to marine science knowledge in Africa.

Initially we gave fishers a pre-printed form to report opportunistic sightings they encountered. However, the form was getting lost most of the time.

We decided to move to a digital solution. The existing App by then required internet to work and was just too complicated for fishers. So we thought we shoud develop an App that will be more userfriendly for fishers.

We wrote the algorithm (workflow) of the App and then contracted an Indian development company to write the code.

Later we had to bring the development of SIREN back to Cameroon to reduce the cost of developement.

We work with volunteer around the world that will continuously support with the development of the SIREN

passion and determination
availability of seed fund to develop an initial version of the SIREN App
Collaboration with local App developpers
Extending the collaboration to international volunteers
understand

The first developper company I contracted for the development of SIREN was a foreign company based in India. The cost of develpment was very high and there was a lot of miscomunication due to language barriers. When we started working with local developpers, the cost of development decreased importantly and it was easier to communicate.
Before giving a smarphone to fisher for data collection you must develop a trust relationship with him before otherwise the phone will never be used by the fisher to report sightings.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Collaborative Partnerships for Conservation

Collecting data on field

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Selecting data on field

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Symbolical signature of Tech4nature Mexico Phase 2

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Collecting data on field

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Training on feline characteristics

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This building block focuses on the establishment of strong partnerships between academic institutions (Universidad Politécnica de Yucatán), local governments (Secretaría de Desarrollo de Sustentable del Estado de Yucatán), and conservation organizations (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources), private sector (Huawei), and local communities (Dzilam de Bravo) to enhance the collection and analysis of biodiversity data, access to technological infrastructure, government program instrumentation and application, and local ownership and execution.

The purpose of this building block is to foster cooperation among diverse stakeholders to ensure the effective implementation of conservation technologies. These partnerships enable the sharing of resources and expertise, empowering local actors to participate in conservation projects and creating a framework for sustainability.

Enabling factors:

Strong engagement and alignment between stakeholders, including academic institutions, government agencies, conservation organizations, private sector and local communities.
Signed agreements that define clear roles, responsibilities, and benefits for all parties involved.
Access to local knowledge and expertise to ensure the relevance and effectiveness of conservation actions.

Transparent communication between stakeholders is crucial to build trust and ensure the long-term success of partnerships.
Including academic institutions fosters innovation and provides opportunities for student involvement in meaningful projects.
Government involvement helps to create conservation policies and facilitates execution in the community.
Partnerships with conservation organisations strengthen the scalability and visibility of conservation initiatives by pooling resources and knowledge.
Community of Dzilam de Bravo provides data on field and by taking ownership of the project, they contribute to efficient project execution
Private sector provides infrastructure and expertise to facilitate the development of the technology

https://www.forclimate.ai/tech4nature

A multi-stakeholder partnership facilitate the successful journey of FFMA

Leveraging diverse expertise from various backgrounds, such as fisheries, technology, and governance, to contribute their expertise and experience. Pooling resources from different stakeholders community, government, technology and knowledge partners including INCOIS and Qualcomm to support the development, implementation, and scaling up of the FFMA. Ensuring the FFMA meets the needs of fishers and other stakeholders, increasing its adoption and impact. All these building a strong foundation for the FFMA's long-term sustainability through shared ownership and commitment.

Continuous engagement with the fisher community

Continuously engage community in development process enables the development of a more user-friendly and relevant Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) including identifying and addressing specific challenges and requirements, refining the application based on feedback and evolving needs., building trust and encouraging widespread use among fishers.

Engagement with Qualcomm: Sustained support from Qualcomm is also important factor to take application in PAN India

Embedding Fisher Friend within the Fish for All Centre Programme:
MSSRF integrated Fisher Friend into its Fish for All Centre Programme, focusing on sustainable fisheries development. This alignment leveraged existing resources, expertise, and networks, providing a strong foundation for promoting Fisher Friend.

Engagement with INCOIS:
Collaborating with the INCOIS, MSSRF ensured the provision of critical oceanographic data and advisories. This partnership enhanced the app’s accuracy and relevance for fishers.

Engagement with Departments of Fisheries and the Indian Coast Guard:
Closely work with government departments to align Fisher Friend’s services with government priorities. These partnerships also facilitated policy advocacy and integration with existing fisheries initiatives

Partnership with Fisher Associations and Local NGOs:
By partnering with fisher associations and local NGOs, MSSRF leveraged local networks and expertise

Continuous engagement with the fisher community is crucial for developing a user-friendly and relevant application.

Regular feedback and updates are necessary to ensure the application meets evolving user needs.

Collaboration with various stakeholders can enhance the application's impact, sustainability, and reach.

Technology can significantly improve the lives and livelihoods of fishers by providing timely information, improving safety, and increasing efficiency.

Implementation

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Multi-national

Spatial Intelligence for Wildfire Management

This building block provides the essential spatial intelligence for PyroSense, enabling a dynamic understanding of the geographical landscape. Its core purpose is to identify fire risk areas, pinpoint incident locations, and visualize resource deployment. This is crucial for strategic decision-making, allowing proactive resource allocation, and response planning.

PyroSense utilizes a robust Geographic Information System (GIS) to power this function. The GIS integrates various spatial data layers, including topography, vegetation, infrastructure, etc. Initially, baseline risk maps are created by analyzing factors, guiding the placement of sensors and cameras.

Upon detection of a potential fire by environmental sensors or AI, the system immediately feeds the precise coordinates into the GIS. This real-time location data, combined with meteorological data (local and satellite), enables dynamic risk assessments. The GIS also serves as a central operational dashboard, visualizing the real-time positions of all deployed assets, including drones and first responder teams. This facilitates optimal resource allocation and coordination. This critical information is then communicated via a web application to stakeholders, providing clear visual situational awareness and supporting informed decision-making.

Accurate and Up-to-Date GIS Data: Access to current geospatial data on topography, vegetation, historical fire activity is essential for reliable risk assessments.
A powerful GIS platform is necessary for integrating diverse data layers, performing complex analyses, and running real-time AI.
Expertise is needed to interpret GIS data, validate models, and use the platform for strategic planning and incident management.
Connectivity with environmental sensors, drone feeds, and meteorological data is crucial for dynamic risk mapping and accurate fire tracking.

The accuracy and utility of geospatial planning are directly proportional to the quality and timeliness of the underlying GIS data. Investing in high-resolution, frequently updated maps and environmental data is paramount. Furthermore, the ability to integrate real-time sensor and drone data into the GIS for dynamic risk assessment proved to be a game-changer, moving beyond static planning to predictive capabilities.

Initial challenges included the significant effort required to collect and digitize comprehensive baseline GIS data for large, remote areas. Data standardization across different sources (e.g., various government agencies, local surveys) was also a hurdle. Additionally, ensuring the GIS platform could handle the computational load of real-time data fusion and complex fire spread simulations without latency issues was a technical challenge.

Before deployment, dedicate substantial resources to acquiring and standardizing all relevant geospatial data.
Choose a GIS platform that can scale with increasing data volumes and computational demands.
Ensure that local teams are proficient in using the GIS platform

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

Comprehensive Data Ingestion for Fire Detection

This is the comprehensive intake mechanism for all information vital to PyroSense's platform. Its purpose is to gather real-time data, from multiple origins, ensuring the system has the input needed for accurate analysis and effective decision-making.

PyroSense integrates an agnostic and highly compatible array of data:

Environmental IoT Sensors are strategically deployed, and continuously collect real-time CO2, temp. and humidity data. They are agnostic in type and protocol, compatible with MQTT, LoRa, Sigfox, and NBIoT, ensuring broad integration. For efficiency, they feature long-lasting batteries (up to 10 years), minimising maintenance.
Fixed cameras and drones capture high-resolution images and live video. Integrated Vision AI processes this visual data in real-time to detect anomalies like smoke or fire.
PyroSense gathers data from local weather stations and satellites. Combining granular local data with broad satellite coverage provides a comprehensive understanding of current weather.
GIS provides foundational spatial information, including maps of terrain, vegetation, infrastructure, etc.
Firemen Wearables monitor real-time biometrics. AI enhances data for risk pattern recognition, of fatigue or heat stress. Real-time alerts are sent to nearby teams or control centers, enabling proactive intervention.

Reliable Sensor Deployment: Sensors should be strategically placed, well-installed, ensuring continuous data collection and security.
Data Stream Integration: Integrating data from various sensors, cameras, drones, and meteorological sources is crucial for situational awareness.
Data Quality and Calibration: Ensure all data sources are calibrated and high quality to avoid false alarms.
Secure Data Transmission: A strong communication is vital for secure, low-latency data transfer from remote locations.

The diversity and agnosticism of data sources are critical for comprehensive and resilient fire detection. Relying on a single type of sensor or communication protocol creates vulnerabilities. The ability to integrate data from various IoT sensors, visual feeds (cameras, drones), meteorological data, and even human biometrics provides a robust, multi-layered detection system that significantly reduces false positives and increases detection accuracy.

The platform must be software and hardware agnostic.
Cybersecurity and intercommunication are crucial.

A significant challenge was ensuring seamless interoperability between different sensor types and communication protocols (e.g., MQTT, LoRa, Sigfox, NBIoT) from various manufacturers. As well as, maintaining connectivity in remote, terrains for all sensor types was also an ongoing effort, despite long battery life.

Design your system to be compatible with multiple IoT communication protocols from the outset.
Develop algorithms for data validation and fusion to cross-reference information from disparate sources.
Consider hybrid communication solutions (e.g., satellite for remote areas)

Empowering Communities Through Sustainable Livelihoods and Equitable Access to Economic and Environmental Justice

Corruption in the forestry sector continues to undermine the rights & livelihoods of local & Indigenous communities. By institutionalising the use of ForestLink, we empower local communities beyond enforcement - the system has proven critical in tackling this corruption, enabling communities to document land rights violations & illegal activities, defend their territories & secure access to justice, whilst securing sustainable economic opportunities linked to forest resources.

Crucially, ForestLink supports sustainable economic activities & lays the groundwork for payment for environmental services by reinforcing community autonomy & stewardship of natural resources. Through partnerships with local organisations skilled in legal advocacy & sustainable enterprise, communities are supported to develop livelihoods aligned with forest protection. Key enabling factors include understanding current economic practices, ensuring financial support for legal actions & engaging in parallel advocacy to secure land rights.

By actively managing and defending their lands, communities reinforce their autonomy & contribute to long-term, locally driven development. The data collected through the tool also plays a crucial role in supporting access to justice - providing evidence for legal & non-legal actions when communities face human rights abuses or environmental crimes.

Understanding the communities’ current economic activities is essential
Financial means are necessary to support legal and administrative processes
Partnering with local organisations specialised in legal advocacy & sustainable business enhances impact
Parallel advocacy work to secure individual & collective land rights is critical

Awareness-raising on sustainable economic activities must involve all community groups, with targeted efforts for women & girls.
Trained staff in justice, law & sustainable economy fields are vital for success

Implementation

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

Strengthening Multilevel Advocacy Networks Among NGOs to Amplify Collective Action

Using a digital tool to collect & analyse data is innovative, but real impact comes from applying that data to support advocacy & law enforcement for the protection of forests & local communities & Indigenous peoples’ rights. To this end, strong local, national & international advocacy networks are needed to take action against reported abuses & to achieve legal & policy changes. By enabling information to be shared between users & opening up data to the general public when consent has been given, the tool facilitates collaborative working for greater impact.

Collaborating with NGOs that share similar values & goals strengthens collective impact
Coordinated data verification & analysis supports timely, unified advocacy.
Partnering with local organisations specialising in legal advocacy enhances impact
Strong relationships with trusted national & international institutions help validate & promote the tool.

While building NGOs networks is important, it is also vital to respect when organisations choose not to collaborate. Supporting each local NGO individually - & avoiding competition - requires flexibility in project design & donor engagement.
To ensure networks’ sustainability, medium- & long-term funding is essential to keep coordination efforts running smoothly (secretariat costs etc.).
Support to local and national NGOs on organisational development is key to allow them to participate effectively in networks.

Implementation

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

Flexible, Community-Centered Reporting & Monitoring System for Real-Time Accountability & Impact Tracking

This digital tool's efficiency relies on the fact that it is accessible from remote areas & easy to use for local & Indigenous communities.

It allows grassroots data to be gathered to feed national and global advocacy. Its adaptability 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 & to continue supporting the observers
Reliable development & IT support for smooth tool operation
Regular capacity building workshops for partners & community monitors strengthens local ownership
Adaptative tool to answer to partners’ evolving needs
Coordination staff within our team & partner organisations improves implementation & communication

Regular check-ins ensure the tool & hardware function properly & meet partner expectations
Ongoing, hands-on support, mentorship & in-person training allow partners to fully understand & use the tool effectively
Political, social or environmental factors might disrupt data collection, planning must account for this.
While technical training is important, it must be embedded within comprehensive training on environmental law & human rights to empower communities to advocate effectively, pursue legal enforcement, & claim justice & reparations.
Women & girls are key drivers of change & should be fully integrated into all project activities

Co-Designing Solutions with Grassroots & Indigenous Partners: Strengthening Community-Led Action for Inclusive & Sustainable Development

The evidence is building that granting Indigenous peoples & other local communities' control over their territories improves forest protection, as they are directly invested in the survival of forests & want to ensure that future generations can continue to live & thrive in them. Yet a lot of development, environmental & 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 & Indigenous & local communities brought to our attention. Those communities are the ones living all the forests illegalities & land tenure violations. By directly tackling their challenge it ensures the solution to be genuine & efficient. Working with them directly helps us to better understand the contexts they are facing & adapt the tool in consequence.

Long-term, respectful partnerships with tool users & communities.
Adaptability to react to changing contexts & local needs
Adequate financial resources for operations & engagement’s sustainability

Prior research into local traditions, culture & socio-economic conditions improve tool relevance, acceptance & impact.
Trust & impact grows through deep listening, cultural sensitivity & respectful engagement.
Real impact comes from working with, not just for, Indigenous & locally led organisations. Additionally, it grows when working with local grassroots organisations & not only with national level NGOs.

Planning phase

Implementation

Documentation and dissemination of results

Community engagement

Communities must benefit from the data collected, and we ensure they do.

We support quarterly data-sharing meetings between Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) community conservancies and Big Life Foundation, creating an open forum where data informs collaborative decision-making. This includes town planning, land-use strategies and community-led conservation initiatives.

By sharing insights on wildlife movements, environmental conditions and human activity, communities can plan together for peace, security and the prevention of human-wildlife conflict (HWC). These sessions empower conservancies to co-develop solutions across landscapes, strengthening cross-border cooperation and ensuring that data drives action where it’s needed most.

Control over data sharing or privacy.

Community stewards are empowered and trained to collect data through different sensors, using the IoT network to feed data into control rooms and Earth Ranger.

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