Technology to Monitor and Share Information on Rainforests and Forest People's Rights: Primer

"Technology is never a magic bullet and rarely a quick fix. No tool can replace the need for strong relationships with communities, based on trust and knowledge of local context."

This is an introduction (or primer) for using technology to monitor and share information on rainforest issues, land rights, and indigenous rights. The product of a collaboration between Rainforest Foundation Norway and The Engine Room with Ford Foundation funding, it describes advantages and disadvantages of different tools that may be used to help organisations and activists, offering many concrete examples. It also provides a step-by-step guide to strategic project development, suggesting essential questions that must be answered to ensure that technology serves the project's needs, and not the other way around.

As is explained in the foreword to the primer, tools like smartphones and data visualisation software have become less expensive, more available, and easier to use, opening up new opportunities for rainforest monitoring and sharing of information. New tools or platforms can help activists map forest resources, detect illegal logging, report on human rights abuses, or trace the origins of commodities. Previously, data on topics like land usage, forest cover, and natural resources were hard to find, expensive, and difficult to use. This is starting to change, and it can be combined with on-the-ground information collected by civil society organisations (CSOs), too.

Yet indigenous peoples and local organisations in rainforest countries still struggle to claim their customary rights and protect rainforests under difficult conditions. Often, infrastructure and means of communication are poor, and lack of training and funding can be obstacles to taking advantage of the opportunities that technology offers. Furthermore, the interest groups behind unsustainable forest exploitation tend to have more resources to use new, evolving technologies than the local groups or CSOs working for forest protection. Even so, there are examples of how local activists employ new technology in ingenious ways to make their work more effective and efficient. What the successful projects generally have in common is that they are solidly designed and based on clear goals and a thorough analysis of the problem at hand.

In that context, the primer is designed as a starting point for organisations and activists interested in adding technology to improve their advocacy work, though it can also be useful for organisations that have some experience using technology and want to reflect on how to increase the impact of their work. While the report can be read from start to finish, it is designed to allow readers to easily access the information that interests them the most. Suggestions for further reading are provided for those who want to explore a particular tool or experience in more detail.

Specifically, the first section of the primer sets out general principles and things to think about when designing any project that uses technology - e.g., "Let people decide how data about them is collected and used, particularly when working with marginalised communities. The communities themselves should have the final say on the level of risk and exposure they are willing to take." The second section introduces some of the tools that can be useful in rainforest-focused projects, grouped into six types:

1. mobile (cell) phone applications to collect and record data from the field
2. maps produced together with communities (participatory mapping)
3. satellite imagery
4. do-it-yourself aerial photography (such as drones)
5. audio and video
6. online maps that combine and layer different types of data on top of each other

The final section lists a series of guides and tools with more detailed information that can help the reader take the next steps in incorporating new technology into a project.