topic: Mapping

topic: Mapping

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New tool aims to help palm oil firms comply with deforestation regulations
- A new online tool launched by web-based monitoring platform Palmoil.io aims to help companies check their compliance with deforestation regulations for palm oil.
- PlotCheck enables companies to upload plot boundaries without having to store it in the cloud, thereby working around concerns on data security and privacy.
- The tool analyzes the plot for deforestation based on publicly available satellite data; it also displays data on historical deforestation in the plot as well as palm oil processing mills in the proximity.
- “The output is going to be a statement which companies can submit to authorities to prove that their shipment is deforestation-free,” said Leo Bottrill, founder of Palmoil.io.

AI and satellite data map true scale of untracked fishing and ocean industry
- A new study shows that more than 75% of industrial fishing activity and almost 30% of transport and energy activity in the oceans has not been tracked by public systems, revealing a significant gap in global observational data.
- The study, led by Global Fishing Watch, used AI to analyze 2 petabytes of satellite imagery collected between 2017 and 2021, providing unprecedented insights into hidden fishing hotspots and offshore energy infrastructure development.
- The research highlighted the potential of combining AI with Earth observation data to gain a more comprehensive understanding of ocean activities, which is needed to manage and improve the sustainability of the $2.5 trillion blue economy.
- The open-source code developed during the study can help inform policy for safeguarding ocean ecosystems, enforcing laws and identifying renewable energy expansion sites, the study authors said.

Do carbon credits really help communities that keep forests standing?
- Communities play a critical role in REDD+, a forest conservation strategy that aims to reduce emissions that can be sold as credits to raise money for forest protection.
- REDD+ projects often include components for the benefit of the communities, such as a focus on alternative livelihoods and provision of health care and education.
- But reports that REDD+ communities have faced abuses and rights violations have emerged recently in connection with high-profile REDD+ projects.
- Several Indigenous-led organizations have voiced their support for REDD+ because, they say, it provides an avenue to fund their climate-related conservation work, while other groups say it’s not the answer.

Who protects nature better: The state or communities? It’s complicated
- In a new study, more than 50 researchers conducted a review comparing the effectiveness of state-managed protected areas and areas managed by Indigenous peoples and local communities.
- The review found that comparing the two was very challenging for various reasons, including the difficulty in figuring out who was managing an area, as well as a lack of comparable data and different groups of researchers measuring different things, making comparisons hard.
- The studies that did allow for comparisons showed that no single governance type consistently outperformed the other. What works better seems to be super local and context dependent.
- At the same time, the review found that, in general, the existing scientific literature underscores the importance of community-driven conservation.

Tropical deforestation increases even as a few hotspots see respite, new data shows
- Emissions from deforestation in tropical forests rose by 5% in 2022, even as temperate forests strengthened their role as carbon sinks, according to data from a carbon mapping tool developed by nonprofit CTrees.
- According to the data, emissions from deforestation saw a dip in Indonesia and the Congo Basin in 2022; in Brazil, however, emissions continued to rise through 2022, and only started dropping this year.
- The JMRV platform uses satellite imagery and machine learning to map forests and non-forest lands around the world to monitor forest cover, carbon stocks and emissions.
- In addition to broader global data, the tool can also help local jurisdictions monitor and verify their carbon stocks to keep track of their emissions-reduction progress under the Paris climate agreement.

Growing rubber drives more deforestation than previously thought, study finds
- A recently published study has used high-resolution satellite data to show that deforestation linked to rubber cultivation is much higher than previously thought.
- Deforestation for rubber in Southeast Asia, which produces 90% of the world’s natural rubber, was found to be “at least twofold to threefold higher” than earlier estimates.
- The underestimation of rubber-linked deforestation has led to gaps in policy setting and implementation when it comes to managing rubber cultivation, the study says.
- While synthetic rubber, made from fossil fuels, accounts for the most of the rubber produced today, rising demand for rubber overall drove the expansion of rubber plantation areas by 3.3 million hectares (8.2 million acres) from 2010-2020.

Vizzuality data set aims to give companies full view of supply chain impacts
- Sustainability technology company Vizzuality has published an open-source data set that can help companies evaluate how much their products are contributing to ecological degradation and accelerating climate change.
- The data set is also available through LandGriffon, an environmental risk management software.
- The software maps supply chains and calculates the impacts of several environmental indicators, including deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, loss of natural ecosystems, and biodiversity loss resulting from agricultural production.

Independent project steps in as government slow to map Indonesian ancestral lands
- An independent initiative in Indonesia, the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA), has ramped up its efforts in mapping customary lands by identifying 26.9 million hectares (66.5 million acres) — an area twice the size of Java — of land claimed by Indigenous communities.
- But the government’s efforts in recognizing these customary lands is lagging behind, with only 3.73 million hectares (9.21 million acres) formally recognized; that’s just 14% of what the BRWA has mapped.
- And this formal recognition is still largely limited to local governments, with the central government having only issued land certificates for customary lands in two provinces, 12 hectares (29 acres) of land certified in West Sumatra and 699.7 hectares (1,728 acres) in Papua.

New satellite readings show full extent of mining in the Amazon Rainforest
- A new report from Monitoring of the Amazon Project (MAAP) compiles some of the most up-to-date and extensive analysis of mining in the Amazon.
- The map show 58 instances of illegal mining in virtually every Amazonian country (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana), 49 of them illegal.
- The map also shows that there were 36 instances of mining activity overlapping with a protected area or Indigenous territory.

‘It’s a real mess’: Mining and deforestation threaten unparalleled DRC wildlife haven
- The Okapi Wildlife Reserve in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo protects unique biodiversity, including approximately one-fifth of the global okapi population, the country’s largest forest elephant and chimpanzee populations and 17 primate species, and it safeguards forest access for the Indigenous Mbuti and Efe peoples.
- Deforestation in the reserve is accelerating, according to data from Global Forest Watch.
- Artisanal and semi-industrial mining is a grave threat to the reserve, leading to deforestation and pollution of waterways, particularly in the south of the reserve along the Ituri River and the National Road 4.
- A disagreement over the boundaries of the reserve between park authorities and the mining cadastre complicates law enforcement and requires resolution at the ministerial level.

Restoring degraded forests may be key for climate, study says
- Scientists have found that focusing on restoring degraded forests, which cover more than 1.5 billion hectares (3.7 billion acres) globally, can enhance forest carbon stocks more efficiently than replanting in deforested areas, with natural regrowth being a cost-effective method.
- In Central America’s “Five Great Forests,” there’s a goal to restore 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) by 2030. The study identified 9.8 million hectares (24.2 billion acres) as top restoration priorities, with 91% being degraded forests.
- Restoring just 5% of these priority zones was calculated to potentially sequester 113 million tons of CO2, equivalent to taking more than 20 million cars off the road for a year.
- The research emphasizes the importance of involving local communities in restoration planning and suggests that current forest management practices, like those in the timber industry, need to adapt for more sustainable outcomes.

New online map tracks threats to uncontacted Indigenous peoples in Brazil’s Amazon
- Mobi, a new online interactive map, draws information from public databases, government statistics and field observations to paint a comprehensive picture of the threats that uncontacted Indigenous peoples face in the Brazilian Amazon.
- The exact location of uncontacted communities is deliberately displaced on the map to avoid any subsequent attacks against them from those who engage in illegal activity in or near their territories.
- The tool can help Indigenous agencies deploy more effective protective actions to fend off threats such as diseases and environmental destruction, which can wipe out vulnerable populations.
- Activists hope the platform will help create a vulnerability index that ranks uncontacted populations according to the severity of threats against them, which can promote stronger public policies.

New digital tool maps blue carbon ecosystems in high resolution
- The Blue Carbon Explorer, a digital tool developed by the nonprofit Nature Conservancy and the Earth-imaging company Planet, combines satellite imagery, drone footage and fieldwork to map mangroves and seagrass in the Caribbean, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
- The tool aims to help scientists, conservationists and governments gauge mangrove health and identify areas in need of restoration.
- The Blue Carbon Explorer comes at a time of growing interest in blue carbon ecosystems as potential nature-based solutions for climate change.

Nearly 30% of all tree cover in Africa may be outside of forests, study says
- A team at the University of Copenhagen has generated a map of tree cover in 45 African countries down to individual tree crowns by feeding high-resolution satellite imagery into a machine-learning model.
- The analysis showed that nearly 30% of the continent’s tree cover lies outside what are traditionally considered forest areas in land-cover maps.
- For nine countries, trees outside forests account for around half their tree cover: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Mauritania and Sudan.
- Such high-resolution tree-cover data could lead to more precise carbon stock assessments and better monitoring of land-use changes.

New study reveals fine detail on location and scale of mining sites worldwide
- Researchers pored over satellite imagery to create one of the most comprehensive data sets on the global mining footprint ever generated.
- The data set, which is publicly available, maps out in fine detail the boundaries of a combined 65,585 km2 (25,323 mi2) of mining sites across the world.
- Nearly 10% of the total mining areas mapped in the study fell inside protected areas like national parks, Ramsar wetlands and UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
- The study’s authors say they hope the data set will prove useful to other researchers, investigators and journalists looking to understand and predict the impact of global mineral supply chains.

More evidence backs Indigenous territories as best safeguard against Amazon deforestation
- Protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon Rainforest experienced just one-third the loss of primary forest compared to non-protected areas, according to a new report by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP).
- Over the five-year study period, between 2017 and 2021, protected areas lost slightly less forest than Indigenous territories, but deforestation was lower in Indigenous territories.
- The MAAP study estimated that 11 million hectares (27 million acres) of primary forest were lost over the five years of the study, of which 71% were lost to deforestation and 29% to fire.
- The study highlights the effectiveness of Indigenous territories in protecting forests and the need for more protective designations, particularly for Indigenous territories.

New map boosts Philippine eagle population estimate, but highlights threats
- The Philippine eagle has been declared threatened with extinction for nearly three decades, but little is definitely known about its range and its wild population.
- Using satellite images, decades of georeferenced nest locations, and data from citizen scientists, a team of researchers identified 2.86 million hectares (7.07 million acres) of forest suitable for the eagles, which they estimate host around 392 breeding pairs.
- Only 32% of the identified habitats fall within the Philippines’ current protected area network, prompting researchers to call for stronger protection measures for the endemic raptor.

Scientists map nearly 10 billion trees, stored carbon, in Africa’s drylands
- A recent study has mapped the locations of 9.9 billion trees across Africa’s drylands, a region below the Sahara Desert and north of the equator.
- The research, which combined satellite mapping, machine learning and field measurements, led to an estimate of 840 million metric tons of carbon contained in the trees.
- This figure is much lower than the amount of carbon held in Africa’s tropical rainforests.
- However, these trees provide critical biodiversity habitat and help boost agricultural productivity, and this method provides a tool to track both degradation and tree-planting efforts in the region.

Mangrove forest loss is slowing toward a halt, new report shows
- In 2021, the Global Mangrove Alliance, a consortium of NGOs, published “The State of the World’s Mangroves,” the first snapshot study compiled from satellite imagery intended to provide an up-to-date record of global mangrove forest cover.
- The second installment of the report, published in September, draws on improved and updated maps.
- The report shows a decline in the overall rate of mangrove loss and outlines concrete actions to halt the loss for good and help mangroves begin regaining ground.

New study identifies mature forests on U.S. federal lands ripe for protection
- A new mapping study conducted by NGOs finds that older forests in the U.S. make up about 167 million acres, or 36%, of all forests in the contiguous 48 states. About a third of this, or roughly 58 million acres, are on federal lands. The rest are controlled by non-federal entities, including large amounts held by private owners.
- Just 24% of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management forests are fully protected, with the rest being at various levels of risk from logging, offering the Biden administration an opportunity to more thoroughly protect far more old-growth and mature forests on federal lands in order to help meet U.S. climate goals.
- The new study identified a challenge inherent in this strategy: The majority of federal lands are in the West, but one of the highest concentrations of U.S. mature and old-growth forests is in the Southeast, where most older forests are on private property. Privately held old-growth and mature forests are poorly protected in the U.S.
- If the U.S. wants to broaden its carbon emission reduction strategy, say researchers, then mature forest conservation should include both federal and private holdings. Private forests could be protected via state regulation, utilizing conservation easements and payments for verifiable carbon offsets, along with land trust acquisition.

New tech aims to track carbon in every tree, boost carbon market integrity
- Climate scientists and data engineers have developed a new digital platform billed as the first-ever global tool for accurately calculating the carbon stored in every tree on the planet.
- Founded on two decades of research and development, the new platform from nonprofit CTrees leverages artificial intelligence-enabled satellite datasets to give users a near-real-time picture of forest carbon storage and emissions around the world.
- With forest protection and restoration at the center of international climate mitigation efforts, CTrees is set to officially launch at COP27 in November, with the overall aim of bringing an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability to climate policy initiatives that rely on forests to offset carbon emissions.
- Forest experts broadly welcome the new platform, but also underscore the risk of assessing forest restoration and conservation projects solely by the amount of carbon sequestered, which can sometimes be a red herring in achieving truly sustainable and equitable forest management.

Mapping of Indigenous lands ramps up in Indonesia — without official recognition
- An independent initiative has mapped 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of Indigenous lands in Indonesia since March, bringing the total since it started in 2010 to 20.7 million hectares (51.2 million acres).
- Only 15% of this mapped Indigenous land has been officially recognized by the government, with critics blaming a slow and costly bureaucracy, a lack of political will from government leaders, and an infrastructure development push that’s often competing for the same land.
- Indigenous rights proponents say legislation on the issue, which has languished in parliament for the past decade, needs to be fast-tracked and passed to address the bottleneck.

Data from droppings: Researchers draw up a genetic ID map for chimps
- As part of a broader project studying the cultural and genetic diversity of chimpanzees across Africa, researchers have used fecal samples from 48 sites across the continent to create a genetic identity data set of chimpanzees across the species’ range.
- The data set supports the division of chimpanzees into the four currently recognized subspecies, as well as shedding light on historic gene flow between subspecies and between chimpanzees and bonobos.
- The data set can help conservationists determine the genetic origin of chimpanzees confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade and identify poaching hotspots, researchers say.

New near-real-time tool reveals Earth’s land cover in more detail than ever before
- A new tool co-developed by Google Earth Engine and the World Resources Institute is being billed as the planet’s most up-to-date and high-resolution global land cover mapping data set, giving unprecedented levels of detail about how land is being used around the world.
- The launch of the tool this week marks a big step forward in enabling organizations and governments to make better science-based, data-informed decisions about urgent planetary challenges, the developers say.
- Named Dynamic World, it merges cloud-based artificial intelligence with satellite imagery to give near-real-time global visualizations of nine types of land use and land cover.
- The tool is likely to be important for a variety of purposes, the developers say, such as monitoring the progress of ecosystem restoration goals, assessing the effectiveness of protected areas, creating sustainable food systems, and alerting land managers to unforeseen land changes like deforestation and fires.

Indonesian government lagging independent effort to recognize Indigenous lands
- A total of 17.6 million hectares (43.5 million acres) of Indigenous territories in Indonesia, an area half the size of Germany, have been demarcated under an independent initiative that began in 2010.
- The mapping is seen as the first step for Indigenous communities in the long and complicated process of applying for official government recognition of their land rights.
- But government efforts continue to lag behind this initiative, with the state to date only recognizing 15% of the territories demarcated by the latter.
- At the local level, governments in the eastern regions of Maluku and Papua have been more accommodating of Indigenous land claims; but at the national level, a bill on Indigenous rights has been stalled in parliament for a decade now.

Ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin: Indigenous knowledge serves as a ‘connective tissue’ between nature and human well-being
- As a best-selling author, the co-founder of the award-winning Amazon Conservation Team, and an acclaimed public speaker, Mark Plotkin is one of the world’s most prominent rainforest ethnobotanists and conservationists.
- His experiences in Amazonian communities led Plotkin, along with Costa Rican conservationist Liliana Madrigal, to establish the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) in 1995. ACT took a distinctly different approach than most Western conservation groups at the time: It placed Indigenous communities at the center of its strategy.
- ACT’s approach has since been widely adopted by other organizations, and its philosophy as a whole is now more relevant than ever as the conservation sector wrestles with its colonial roots.
- Plotkin spoke of his work, trends in conservation, and a range of other topics in a January 2022 interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

New atlas illuminates impact of artificial light in the ocean at night
- Researchers recently released the first global atlas that quantifies artificial light at night on underwater habitats.
- Artificial light from urban environments along the coast can have far-reaching impacts on a range of marine organisms that have evolved over millions of years to be extremely sensitive to natural light such as moonlight.
- The researchers found that at a depth of 1 meter (3 feet), 1.9 million square kilometers (734,000 square miles) of the world’s coastal oceans were exposed to artificial light at night, equivalent to about 3% of the world’s exclusive economic zones.
- Blue tones from LED lights can penetrate particularly deeply into the water column, potentially causing more issues to underwater inhabitants.

Climate efforts won’t succeed without secure community rights, says Nonette Royo
- Indigenous territories account for at least 36% of the world’s “intact forests” and Indigenous Peoples and local communities (ILPC) live in or manage about half of the planet’s lands, making these areas a critical imperative in efforts to combat climate change and species loss.
- Yet in many places, IPLCs lack formal recognition of their customary lands and resources, jeopardizing their basic human rights and heightening the risk that these areas could be damaged or destroyed. For these reasons, helping IPLCs secure land rights is increasingly seen as a central component of efforts to address climate change and achieve conservation goals.
- Nonette Royo, the executive director of the Tenure Facility, is one of the most prominent advocates for advancing the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and women. Royo spoke with Mongabay about progress and obstacles in the push to advance local peoples’ tenure rights as well as the Tenure Facility’s approaches.
- “Many models are now emerging to get these types of approaches, which require deep listening and letting communities lead the process, and adjusting or adapting their own agenda, and being willing to be transformed in the process,” Royo said. “This is most needed in the conservation space. This means respecting all rights, not just of people (as individuals or collective), but of their ways of tending with nature and co-beings with nature.”

In Half-Earth Project, a full-on bid to get countries to protect biodiversity
- Last year, the Half-Earth Project launched its “national report cards,” which show how much land is currently protected in each country, how many land vertebrate species (including endemics) each country holds, and how much and also which areas of land should be preserved to protect its biodiversity in the future.
- Each country also receives a score based on several indicators, including the National Species Protection Index (SPI), which was generated by the Map of Life and endorsed by the Convention on Biological Diversity.
- The team at the Half-Earth Project say the map and accompanying tools can be valuable resources for decision-makers trying to reach the objective of protecting 30% of land by 2030, although they argue that the ultimate goal should be protecting half of the Earth.
- While supporters of the Half-Earth Project say achieving their goal benefits everyone, critics say a large number of people, particularly those living in poorer countries, could be adversely affected by such large-scale area-based protection.

What makes mapping and monitoring zero-deforestation commitments effective?
- Experts have identified 12 attributes of effective zero deforestation commitment, or ZDC, mapping and monitoring systems.
- The attribute framework can be used to guide the development of effective ZDC mapping and monitoring systems.
- Having such a framework is important as there’s not a single one-size-fits-all ZDC mapping and monitoring system that will meet the needs of all users.

Sharing solutions: How a digital toolkit is strengthening Indigenous voices
- The Earth Defenders Toolkit is a growing collection of apps, resources and blogs where Indigenous peoples and their allies can come together to connect and mobilize.
- The goals of the toolkit are to support local autonomy, allowing Indigenous communities to maintain ownership of data and reduce the need for outside support.
- One successful app within the toolkit, Mapeo, helps Indigenous communities around the world map and monitor environmental and human rights information.
- The toolkit keeps the needs of Indigenous communities at the forefront, overcoming barriers inherent to technology, like participation and security.

Final court ruling orders Indonesian government to publish plantation data
- An Indonesian court has upheld a landmark ruling that says all plantation data and maps are public information and thus should be made available to the public.
- The court’s decision was made in 2020, but it wasn’t until March 2021 that the court informed the plaintiff in the case, the NGO Forest Watch Indonesia.
- But the government, in this case the land ministry, has refused to comply with the order to release the data, going back to a 2017 Supreme Court ruling.
- The ministry has also refused to share the data with other government ministries and agencies, prompting even lawmakers to call on it to comply.

Chocolate giant funds high resolution carbon map to protect forests
- A new carbon map based on high resolution satellite imagery that will help companies avoid deforestation in their supplies chains is expected to be published by the end of 2021.
- The map builds on the High Carbon Stock (HCS) approach, a methodology that differentiates between six categories of vegetation cover, from native forest areas that conservationists say should be protected to degraded lands low in carbon and biodiversity that may be appropriate for conversion to other uses.
- The map was developed by the EcoVision Lab at ETH Zurich and financed by Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest chocolate maker.
- The initial release of the map covers Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

Companies and officials flout forest-clearing moratorium in Papua, report finds
- A new Greenpeace report has identified a litany of loopholes and violations in Indonesia’s forest and palm oil moratoriums as well as other forest protection regulations.
- The report alleges that government officials routinely flout their own regulations to continue issuing licenses to plantation companies in the country’s eastern Papua region.
- Among the alleged violations are the constant changes to maps of forest that should be off-limits for plantations, and forest-clearing permits granted to companies that don’t meet the requirements.

New map shows where the 80% of species we don’t know about may be hiding
- A new study maps out the regions of the world most likely to hold the highest number of species unknown to science.
- The study found that tropical forests in countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Madagascar and Colombia had the highest potential for undescribed species, mostly reptiles and amphibians.
- According to the lead researcher, the main reason for species going undescribed is a lack of funding and taxonomic experts in some parts of the world.
- He added that it’s essential to learn about as many species as possible to protect them, but that undescribed species are currently not taken into account by governing bodies like the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Oil palm growers’ misdeeds allow an opportunity to save West Papua’s forests
- An area of forest two and a half times the size of London sits inside oil palm concessions in Indonesia’s West Papua province but can still be spared from being cleared, a government review indicates.
- Clearing the forest to plant oil palms would release the equivalent of two-fifths of Indonesia’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions, which is why leaving it intact is important, according to experts and local government officials.
- The concession holders have been prevented from developing the land because of a lack of permits and a litany of administrative and legal violations, according to the government review.
- This gives local authorities leverage to win back control of the concessions from the companies on administrative and procedural grounds, although officials say the process could take at least a year, even if the companies relinquish the land voluntarily.

The Kalunga digitally map traditional lands to save Cerrado way of life
- The Kalunga represents a grouping of 39 traditional quilombola communities — the descendants of runaway slaves — living on a territory covering 262,000 hectares (647,000 acres) in Goiás state in central Brazil, within the Cerrado savanna biome.
- This territory has been under heavy assault by illegal invaders, including small-scale wildcat gold miners, and large-scale mining operations, as well as land grabbers who have destroyed native vegetation to grow soy and other agribusiness crops.
- To defend their lands, the Kalunga received a grant from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), supported by Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, EU, the Global Environment Facility, Japan and the World Bank. With their funding, the Kalunga georeferenced the territory, pinpointing homes, crops, soils, 879 springs, and vital natural resources.
- In February 2020, the U.N. Environment Programme and World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) recognized the Kalunga Historical and Cultural Heritage Site as the first TICCA (Territories and Areas Conserved by Indigenous and Local Communities) in Brazil, making it what UNEP-WCMC calls a “Territory for Life.”

A hi-tech eye in the sky lays bare Hawaiʻi’s living coral reefs
- A team of researchers used an airborne mapping technique to survey living coral distribution across the main Hawaiian archipelago.
- Hawaiʻi’s reefs are under threat due to a number of human-driven stressors, such as coastal development, pollution, fishing activities, and climate change events like marine heat waves.
- Places with high levels of live coral included West Hawaiʻi and West Maui, while Oʻahu had some of the lowest coral cover.
- This mapping process can help inform marine protection efforts and identify areas ideal for restoration, according to the research team.

World’s protected areas lack connections, recent study finds
- A recent study, published in the journal Nature Communications, has found that 9.7% of the world’s protected areas are connected by land that’s considered intact.
- The study used the human footprint database, which maps out human impacts, such as roads and farmland, across the planet.
- The research showed that, while some countries have protected 17% of their land — a goal set forth in the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi targets — others, including repositories of biodiversity such as Vietnam and Madagascar, are lagging with little to no connectivity in their networks of reserves.
- The authors suggest that the research could help guide decisions on which areas of land to protect and how to connect them in a way that gives species the best shot at survival.

Paper giant APP linked to Indonesia peat clearing despite sustainability vow
- Greenpeace Southeast Asia has identified nearly 3,500 hectares (8,650 acres) of peatland clearing in pulpwood plantations in Sumatra supplying Asian Pulp & Paper.
- Analysis of satellite imagery showed the clearing began in August 2018 and continued through June this year, despite APP having a “no peatland” and “no burning” policy that it also imposes on its suppliers.
- Greenpeace and local NGO Jikalahari also found evidence of fires in the concessions in question, which appeared to have been set deliberately to clear the land for planting.
- APP has denied clearing the peatland or setting the fires, calling into question the accuracy of the maps used and saying the fires spread from neighboring farms.

Philippines bids farewell to satellite that launched enviro policy into the space age
- Diwata-1, the Philippines’ first microsatellite, has ended its four years in Earth orbit, burning up in the atmosphere on April 6.
- The microsatellite captured more than 17,000 images of the Philippines, covering 38% of the country’s land area.
- Diwata-1 ushered in an age of Earth satellite observation in the Philippines, contributing to science-based approaches to planning, conservation, risk management, and mapping.
- Scientists involved in the program say they hope that analyses and reports culled from the country’s Earth observation technology can help in policymaking and decision-making.

New database wrangles data on land rights projects around the globe
- The database was created by the Land Portal Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in the Netherlands.
- Currently, the database includes hundreds of land tenure projects from the Global Map of Donors and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
- Users are also able to add projects to the database, allowing people working on land and property rights projects to share information.

Activists skeptical of win as court orders Papua plantation maps published
- Indonesia’s agrarian ministry must release plantation maps and data about concession holders for the country’s Papua region, a court has ruled.
- The region is home to the largest remaining undisturbed swath of tropical rainforest in Indonesia, and is increasingly being targeted by the plantation and logging companies that have already depleted the forests of Sumatra and Borneo.
- Environmental and indigenous rights activists have welcomed the court ruling, which they say will help address land grabs and other illegal practices, but add they’re skeptical the agrarian ministry will comply.
- The ministry is already subject to previous rulings, including from the Supreme Court, to release plantation data for other regions of the country, but continues to stonewall with a variety of excuses.

Philippines turns to EU’s Copernicus in Earth satellite data collaboration
- The Philippines is close to sealing a partnership with the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation program for a series of pilot projects that will run three years.
- The projects will focus on mapping deforestation and carbon sequestration, and seas and coastal planning.
- Once the partnership is signed, the country will have access to Copernicus’s extensive database, which government agencies can use to streamline disaster response, monitor environmental efforts, and update the Philippines’ forest and coastal resources maps.

Rare plant species are especially vulnerable to climate change, and rarity is more common than previously understood
- Researchers from around the world spent 10 years compiling a database that now includes 20 million observational records of plant species occurrence, which they say is the largest dataset on botanical biodiversity ever created.
- They found that there are about 435,000 unique land plant species on planet Earth, and that a large fraction of them, 36.5% or some 158,535 species, can be considered “exceedingly rare,” meaning that they have only been observed and recorded anywhere in the world up to five times. In fact, 28.3% of the world’s plants, or 123,149 species, have been observed just three times or less, per the study.
- The research team found that rare species are clustered in a handful of rarity hotspots, and that global warming and the impacts of human land use are already disproportionately impacting the regions that harbor most of these rare plant species.

Indigenous-wildlife ranger collaboration conserves rare Australian rainforests
- A collaboration between Indigenous ranger groups and ecologists is working to conserve a rainforest system in northwestern Australia.
- Monsoon vine thickets are remnant, scarcely distributed rainforests located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and are susceptible to wildfire, land clearing and weed infestation if not properly maintained.
- Yawuru, Nyul Nyul and Bardi Jawi Indigenous ranger groups have partnered with Environs Kimberley’s Kimberley Nature Project for over a decade to conserve monsoon vine thickets through revegetation and fire management.
- Due chiefly to this collaboration’s efforts in maintaining, documenting and promoting the importance of these forests, monsoon vine thickets have been granted ‘Nationally Endangered Ecosystem’ status in Australia. The rangers and ecologists continue to maintain these unique forests.

Protected areas best conserve mammalian diversity when connected with corridors, biologged weasels show
- For protected area (PA) networks to be an effective conservation tool, they should be well-connected to allow species movement through unprotected landscapes, but questions remain on what configuration of natural features can best facilitate animal movement.
- A recent study compared three theories of animal movement (structurally intact corridors, least-cost paths, and stepping stones) by analyzing the fine-scale movements of GPS-tagged fishers, a member of the weasel family. They found the tagged fishers consistently moved along structurally intact, natural corridors across a PA network.
- With the Aichi 2020 Biodiversity Targets in mind, the authors highlight that simply increasing the number of protected areas alone may not achieve the objectives of the protected area network amidst an increasingly fragmented landscape; the conservation of natural corridors between PAs may be equally important, something for future planners to consider.

New report reveals northern Ecuadorian region has lost 61 percent of forests
- The Mache-Chindul Ecological Reserve maintains only 61 percent of its original plant cover. The area’s ecological significance is partly due to its sitting in a transition zone between humid tropical forests and seasonally dry forests.
- In Cotacachi-Cayapas Park, a high level of conservation success represents a source of hope. Now the challenge is to connect the park to private reserves to guarantee protection of the most-threatened lowland forests.

New tool helps monitor forest change within commodities supply chains
- With commercial agriculture driving some 40 percent of tropical deforestation, more than 300 major companies involved in the commodities trade have pledged to avoid deforestation in their supply chains.
- To help the companies and financial institutions adhere to these commitments, Global Forest Watch (GFW) has launched a new forest monitoring tool called GFW Pro.
- Using tree cover change information from GFW’s interactive maps, the new desktop application enables users to observe and monitor deforestation and fires within individual farms and supply sheds or across portfolios of properties and political jurisdictions.
- To encourage use by businesses, the new tool presents the information in graphs and charts to companies for easy and regular monitoring, as they might monitor daily changes in stock prices.

Chile pledges to make its fishing vessel tracking data public
- In mid-May Chile finalized an agreement to publicly share proprietary data from its satellite system for monitoring fishing boats via Global Fishing Watch (GFW), an online interactive mapping platform that tracks ship movements across the globe.
- The country joins Indonesia and Peru, whose data already appear on the GFW platform, as well as Namibia, Panama and Costa Rica, which have pledged to do so.
- Countries are motivated to go public by the prospect of enhancing their ability to enforce fishing regulations, keep an eye on foreign fishing fleets operating outside or transiting through their waters, and, in Chile’s case, prevent the spread of disease in its salmon aquaculture industry.

Monitoring hack shines a light on fishing boats operating under cover of dark
- A new report shows that many of the fishing vessels that operate at night in Indonesian waters don’t broadcast their location, masking a potentially massive problem of illegal and undocumented fishing.
- Though many of these boats fall below the 30 gross tonnage threshold for which the use of the vessel monitoring system (VMS) is required, the study highlights the indication of “dark vessels” where larger boats have switched off the tracking device, likely to avoid detection.
- The researchers suggest that if the matching of two data sets in near real time becomes available, it would greatly help authorities identify these dark vessels and crack down on illegal fishing.

Counting on eDNA for a faster, easier way to count coral
- Environmental DNA, known as eDNA, is genetic material sloughed off by animals or plants and found in soil, air, or water, and allows scientists to collect and analyze genetic material without having to retrieve it from a species directly.
- Researchers in Hawaii found that the amount of eDNA in water samples is related to coral abundance and thus can be used to conduct accurate surveys of local coral populations using less time and money than sending SCUBA divers down to do the surveys.
- Coral reefs have the highest biodiversity of any ecosystem globally and are one of the most threatened, thanks to climate change and direct human impact. eDNA could help researchers evaluate coral abundance and health more quickly, easily and cost-effectively.

‘Judas’ snakes lead scientists on a high-tech Easter egg hunt for pythons
- Scientists are exploring various technologies to address the spread of highly invasive Burmese pythons, which have devastated native mammal and bird populations across much of southern Florida.
- Researchers who recently captured a large pregnant Burmese python did so using the “Judas” technique: the radio-tagging of adult pythons that will approach others of the opposite sex during the breeding season, “betraying” them to the research teams.
- More recently, separate research teams have trialed the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) to determine the spatial distribution, range limits, and expansion rates of Burmese pythons in the region. They found python eDNA within a wildlife refuge, indicating that the invaded area extends further north than previously thought and that pythons are likely resident there.

Panamanian indigenous people act to protect the forest from invading loggers
- The Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia has long been known as an impregnable stretch of rainforest, rivers and swamps inhabited by indigenous peoples as well as guerrillas, drug traffickers and paramilitaries.
- Today the area is undergoing steady deforestation as timber colonists and oil palm entrepreneurs advance across the region, bringing strife and violence to the area’s indigenous residents.
- In Panama, some of the Darién’s indigenous communities are working to reverse this situation. Mappers, a drone pilot, a lawyer, bird-watchers, a journalist and reforesters are carrying out ambitious projects to stop the degradation of the Darién Gap.

How land grabbers co-opt indigenous ritual traditions in Papua: Q&A with anthropologist Sophie Chao
- Industrial-scale agriculture poses considerable risk to the indigenous peoples of Papua, whose culture and livelihoods are closely linked to the region’s extensive rainforest.
- Last November, Mongabay and The Gecko Project published an investigative article exposing the murky dealings underpinning a mega-plantation project in Papua, as part of our series Indonesia for Sale.
- Anthropologist Sophie Chao has studied the often fraught relationship between Papuans and plantation firms, and the mechanisms through which indigenous people are compelled to give up their land.

New map shows every forest matters in helping save the Javan leopard
- A new study outlines where Javan leopards live – and where suitable habitat remains on the densely inhabited island.
- National parks remain the most stable habitat for the critically endangered species, but the study finds that half its potential habitat is in unprotected areas.
- Partnering with companies and local people is necessary to keep Java’s last big cat from going extinct.

The odor side of otters: Tech reveals species’ adaptations to human activity
- Recent studies of an elusive otter species living in the highly modified mangroves and reclaimed lands on the coast of Goa, India offer new insights into otter behavior that could inform future conservation efforts.
- Researchers have studied these adaptable otters with camera traps, ground GPS surveys, and satellite images; they’re now testing drone photogrammetry to improve the accuracy of their habitat mapping.
- Using data gathered over a period of time, the researchers aim to pinpoint changes in the landscape and, in combination with the behavioral data gathered by the camera traps, understand how otters are reacting to these changes.

New space lasers offer best 3D look at global forests yet
- Forest monitoring has increasingly turned to satellites over the past several decades, and 2018 was no exception.
- In the last few months, NASA launched two sensors into space that will play a prominent role in monitoring forest biomass and structure over the next decade: the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) now attached to the International Space Station, and the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2).
- These two satellites, which in combination provide complete coverage of the planet, are equipped with lidar sensors that record forest structure in 3D, contributing to an ongoing wave of large-scale forest ecosystem measurements.

Can satellite data help monitor sustainable rural development?
- Rural residents in lower-income countries rely on natural resources for part of their livelihood, so a team of researchers explored whether farm-scale environmental characteristics obtained from satellite imagery could help assess and monitor rural poverty.
- Researchers found that integrating satellite data at four spatial scales could predict the poorest households across a landscape in Kenya with 62 percent accuracy, despite differences in how individual households interacted with the surrounding environment.
- The size of buildings within a homestead, the amount of bare agricultural land within and adjacent to the homestead, and the length of the growing season were the best predictors of the wealth of a given household.
- The researchers suggest that the increasing availability of high-resolution satellite data will enable their method to be better able to monitor progress toward meeting the sustainable development goals.

Protecting India’s fishing villages: Q&A with ‘maptivist’ Saravanan
- Fishing communities across the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are fighting to protect their traditional lands as the sea rises on one side and residential and industrial development encroaches on the others.
- To support these communities, a 35-year-old local fisherman is helping them create maps that document how they use their land.
- By creating their own maps, the communities are taking control of a tool that has always belonged to the powerful.
- Their maps allow them to speak the language of the state so they can resolve disputes and mount legal challenges against industries and government projects encroaching on their land and fishing grounds.

Machine learning tool helps prioritize plants for conservation
- In a first global plant conservation assessment, a multi-institutional research team used the power of open-access databases and machine learning to predict the conservation status of more than 150,000 plants.
- They paired geographic, environmental, climatic, and morphological trait information of plant species of known risk of extinction from the IUCN Red List with information on plants of unknown risk in a machine learning model. The model calculated the likelihood that a given unassessed plant species was actually at risk of extinction and identified the variables that best predicted conservation risk.
- More than 15,000 of the species–roughly 10 percent of the total assessed by the team—had characteristics similar to those already categorized as at least near-threatened by IUCN and thus at a high likelihood of extinction.
- The protocol could provide a first cut in identifying unassessed species likely at risk of extinction and suggest how to allocate scarce conservation resources.

10 ways conservation tech shifted into auto in 2018
- Conservation scientists are increasingly automating their research and monitoring work, to make their analyses faster and more consistent; moreover, machine learning algorithms and neural networks constantly improve as they process additional information.
- Pattern recognition detects species by their appearance or calls; quantifies changes in vegetation from satellite images; tracks movements by fishing ships on the high seas.
- Automating even part of the analysis process, such as eliminating images with no animals, substantially reduces processing time and cost.
- Automated recognition of target objects requires a reference database: the species and objects used to create the algorithm determine the universe of species and objects the system will then be able to identify.

2018’s top 10 ocean news stories (commentary)
- Marine scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, share their list of the top 10 ocean news stories from 2018.
- Hopeful developments included international efforts to curb plastic pollution and negotiate an international treaty to protect the high seas.
- Meanwhile, research documenting unprecedented ocean warming, acidification, and oxygen decline spotlighted the real-time unfolding of climate change.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Illegal mining in the Amazon ‘not comparable to any other period of its history’
- A new study produced jointly by six Amazonian countries calls illegal mining in protected areas and indigenous territories of the Amazon rainforest “epidemic” due to its rapid expansion across the basin and lack of government planning to contain it.
- The report features an interactive map, produced from satellite imagery and a suite of experts and published materials, showing more than 2,300 mining sites and 30 rivers destroyed or contaminated by illegal mining activities.
- The vast majority of mining sites in the report were in Venezuela, followed by Brazil and Ecuador; the Madre de Dios department in southeastern Peru experienced the Amazon’s highest degradation caused by gold mining.

Photos highlight evolving roles of AI, citizen science in species research
- A recent observation by an amateur naturalist of a fiddler crab species hundreds of kilometers north of its known range challenged the complementary strengths of computer vision and human expertise in mapping species distributions.
- The naturalist uploaded this record to the iNaturalist species database used by amateurs and experts to document sightings; expert input correctly identified the specimen after the platform’s computer vision algorithms did not acknowledge the species outside its documented range.
- Citizen naturalist observations can be used to document rapid changes in species distributions. They also can improve modeling and mapping work conducted by researchers and play an increasing prominent role in building environmental databases.

One map to rule them all: Indonesia launches unified land-use chart
- The Indonesian government has launched a long-awaited unified map of land-use cover across the country, in an effort to resolve overlapping claims that have led to conflict, human rights abuses and environmental damage.
- With more than 17,000 islands and a combined land and sea area that is the seventh-largest in the world, Indonesia has a wide range of official maps, including for mining permits, free-trade zones, oil and gas blocks, and forestry areas.
- The unified land-use map, accessible online, is still missing maps of indigenous territories, while closely held maps of oil palm plantations are being added.

In pursuit of the rare bird that vanishes for half the year
- Until recently, the habits and habitats of the Bengal florican remained a mystery: males were easily seen in their seasonally flooded grassland habitat during the breeding season but effectively disappeared for half the year.
- Researchers in India and Nepal combined field surveys, satellite telemetry and remote sensing to model the distribution and assess the critically endangered bird’s movements, survival and home ranges.
- After years of not knowing the birds’ non-breeding whereabouts, the study found that Bengal floricans leave their protected, seasonally flooded breeding areas in favor of unprotected low-intensity agricultural fields and other upland grasslands during their non-breeding season.

Panama, Namibia plan to reveal fishing fleet data via online map
- Panama and Namibia have planned to publicly share information on their fishing fleet in their waters via the open-access mapping tool by Global Fishing Watch (GFW).
- Both nations say such a move would be crucial in improving transparency in fisheries management and protecting their oceans.
- GFW’s mapping platform provides both general data for the public and more detailed information seen only by authorities.
- The tool helps identify if a boat is fishing during the closed season of a particular species; if it enters an unauthorized area; or if it sails into a protected area.

Radar helps Kenya map mangroves and other cloud-covered forests
- Using Sentinel-1 radar imagery from the European Space Agency, the Forest2020 project has mapped a part of Kenya’s previously hard-to-assess coastal forests.
- The project’s findings show that 45 percent of the 83.5 square kilometers (32 square miles) of mangrove forest in a pilot county is highly degraded and in need of rehabilitation.
- These initial micro-scale maps of Kenya’s mangrove forests will help local forest officers and communities in areas with receding or recovering mangroves to take necessary coastal protection measures.

Satellite technology unites Kenyans against bush fires
- The Eastern and Southern Africa Fire Information System (ESAFIS), an online application developed in Kenya, uses MODIS satellite information to detect bush fires in eastern Africa.
- The freely available app maps and categorizes bush fires in near-real time and shows details of each fire , including the time it was detected, its location with respect to towns and protected areas, and its relative intensity.
- By providing an early fire warning system, the system helps forest management authorities respond to fires in their early stages and prioritize limited resources to fire hotspots.

The iNaturalist species data sharing platform reaches one million users
- The iNaturalist species data-sharing platform reached a milestone earlier this month with its one millionth observer.
- The 10-year-old platform and mobile app use several smartphone technologies, crowd-sourced data, and artificial intelligence to help observers identify the species of plants and animals they see.
- Co-founder Scott Loarie highlighted the rapid progress in computer vision technology as a surprisingly helpful technology that complements crowdsourcing to speed the image identification process for a large number of photos, though it has also introduced other concerns, including how to maintain high data quality.

Real-time plantation map aims to throttle deforestation in Papua
- The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) plans to roll out an interactive map showing the spread of plantations and roads in Indonesia’s Papua region.
- The region is home to some of the last expanses of pristine tropical forest left in the world, but now faces an influx of plantation companies that have already deforested much of Sumatra and Borneo.
- The Papua Atlas is designed to monitor the spread of plantations and road networks in the region, and builds on CIFOR’s earlier Borneo Atlas.
- Crucially this time, the developers are pitching the Papua Atlas to local officials to help inform their policymaking and planning for the region to minimize adverse impacts on the environment and indigenous communities.

Study games out oil palm development scenarios in Borneo
- The study authors quantify what will happen under a business as usual (BAU) approach, a strict conservation plan (CON), and expansion guided by sustainable intensification (SUS-INT).
- Under a BAU scenario, all land currently zoned for corporate oil palm concessions are utilized to their maximum capacity.
- At the other end of the spectrum, the CON scenario considers what will happen if Indonesia’s 2011 forest moratorium preventing new concessions on primary forest and peatland is applied to all currently undeveloped land, and companies adhere to zero-deforestation commitments.
- In between the two, the SUS-INT option considers what would happen if plantations are expanded only in non-forested and non-peat areas, while yields are increased through improved cultivars and intensive management.

Indonesian mine watchdog sues government for concession maps
- The Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) filed the freedom-of-information lawsuit after failing to get a response to its earlier requests to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
- The group contends that it needs the mapping data, in the shapefile (SHP) digital mapping format, to monitor whether mining concessions overlap onto conservation areas or farmland.
- Jatam has previously successfully sued to obtain the release of similar records at the provincial level, and says the ministry’s refusal to comply is a violation of transparency provisions in both the freedom of information and mining laws.

DNA database helps Nepal’s officials monitor tigers, punish poachers
- Nepal’s Centre for Molecular Dynamics has developed a DNA reference database containing genetic and geographic information on 120 of the country’s estimated 200 wild tigers.
- Law enforcement officials used the database to identify the species, sex, and estimated geographic origin of confiscated animal parts suspected to be tigers, pinpointing most of them to individual national parks.
- Such databases have the potential to support not only forensics, but also disease research and monitoring population dynamics, particularly if countries can share genetic data.

Underwater tech unlocks the secrets of The Bahamas’ Exuma Sound
- Scientists in The Bahamas plunged 800 meters (2,624 feet) into the Exuma Sound in manned submersibles for two separate expeditions, carried out in April and August this year.
- Using high-tech cameras, lights and sensors, researchers mapped the underwater terrain, collected samples and obtained footage of rare and undocumented deep-sea species.
- The team hope their research will further conservation efforts in the area, specifically the creation of new marine protected areas that include deep-water habitats.

Indonesia’s ‘one-map’ database blasted for excluding indigenous lands
- The Indonesian government has decided to not include maps of indigenous territory in its unified land-use map database when it is launched this month, despite the fact that some of the maps have been formally recognized by local governments.
- The exclusion has drawn criticism from indigenous rights activists, who say it defeats the purpose of the so-called one-map policy, which is to resolve land conflicts, much of which involve disputes over indigenous lands.
- The activists say the exclusion of the customary maps effectively signals the government’s denial of the existence of indigenous lands.
- For its part, the government says the customary maps will be included once all of them have been formally recognized by local governments — a tedious and time-consuming process that requires the passage of a bylaw in each of the hundreds of jurisdictions in which indigenous lands occur.

Industrial fishing fleets traveling farther to reel in fewer fish
- According to a recent study in the journal Science Advances, the average distance industrial fishing fleets travel from their home ports to fishing grounds is twice what it was in the 1950s, expanding the total area of the world’s oceans that are fished from 60 to 90 percent.
- Despite ranging farther afield and fishing in new waters, however, the fleets of the top 20 fishing countries — collectively responsible for 80 percent of the global industrial fishing catch — are hauling in far smaller amounts of fish.
- Today, about 7 metric tons of fish are caught per 1,000 kilometers (about 621 miles) traveled by those 20 countries’ fleets, less than a third of the more than 25 metric tons they caught per 1,000 kilometers traveled in the 1950s.

Combining aerial imagery and field data estimates timber harvest and carbon emissions
- Researchers used images from LiDAR, a remote sensing technique that produces 3-D depictions of forest structure, to map logging areas—including roads, skid trails, gaps under the canopy, and decks used to store timber—for four timber concessions in Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.
- Pairing the LiDAR data with statistics on the number of trees felled and damaged, the researchers established equations relating the logging area data to both the volume of timber harvested and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions.
- The equations explained up to 87 percent of the variation in the volume of timber extracted.
- Using this method, governments, NGOs, and private organizations can verify timber harvests, formulate future management plans, and estimate harvest volumes and greenhouse gas emissions in other tropical forests, including areas of illegal logging.

Global marine wilderness has dwindled to 13 percent, new map reveals
- New research examining the effects of 19 human stressors on the marine environment shows that only 13 percent of oceans can still be considered wilderness.
- Of the remaining wilderness, much of which is located in the high seas and at the poles, less than 5 percent falls under protection, and climate change and advances in technology could threaten it.
- The authors of the study call for international cooperation to protect the ocean’s wilderness areas, including a “Paris Agreement for the Ocean,” which they hope will be signed in 2020.

Southeast Asian deforestation more extensive than thought, study finds
- Researchers analyzed a suite of satellite imagery products and found much greater deforestation than expected since 2000 in the highlands of Southeast Asia.
- Much of the 82,000 square kilometers (31,700 square miles) they estimate to have been developed into croplands in the region’s highlands reflects previously undocumented conversion of forest, including primary and protected forests, to agriculture.
- Through a sample-based verification process, the authors found that 93 percent of the pixels from areas allocated to areas of net forest loss by the authors’ model were confirmed as net forest loss, and 99 percent of the pixels delineated as other areas were accurately labelled as non-net forest loss.
- The findings contrast with previous assumptions about land-cover trends currently used in projections of global climate change and future environmental conditions in Southeast Asia.

Indigenous peoples control one-quarter of world’s land surface, two-thirds of that land is ‘essentially natural’
- A new study makes a significant contribution to the growing body of research showing that recognizing the land rights of and partnering with indigenous peoples can greatly benefit conservation efforts.
- An international team of researchers produced a map of the terrestrial lands managed or owned by indigenous peoples across the globe, which in turn allowed them to assess “the extent to which Indigenous Peoples’ stewardship and global conservation values intersect.”
- The researchers determined that indigenous peoples have ownership and use or management rights over more than a quarter of the world’s land surface — close to 38 million square kilometers or 14.6 million square miles — spread across 87 countries and overlapping with about 40 percent of all terrestrial protected areas on Earth.

Online mapping tool tracks land-use changes down to the farm
- The online mapping platform MapHubs stores maps and spatial data and makes them available to user groups for viewing, analyzing, and sharing with stakeholders.
- Users purchase a portal on the platform that allows the group to combine various public and private data sets in one secure place, produce maps, customize how the portal presents information, and receive support when needed.
- Groups have used the platform to identify deforestation from oil palm and cacao plantations and generate products such as time-lapse videos to show how regional deforestation can shift and expand.

There’s now an app for mapping seagrass, the oceans’ great carbon sink
- A new online tool aims to crowdsource an image and location database of the world’s seagrass, in a bid to shed light on the threatened and fast-receding underwater flowering plants.
- Anyone with a camera and internet access can upload images of seagrass beds and location info to SeagrassSpotter, available on desktop and mobile apps.
- Project Seagrass, the group behind the mapping tool, hopes it will help countries that are seagrass hotspots but lacking data, like Indonesia, to improve efforts to conserve these vitally important carbon sinks.
- Globally, the group hopes to obtain at least 100,000 records by engaging people from all around the world to collect data about seagrass in their locality. All collected data will be made freely available.

Mongabay discusses technology’s role in conservation at Seattle event [VIDEO]
- A team from Mongabay discussed new applications of technology for conservation with representatives of Seattle Audubon and Acate Amazon Conservation during an event at Seattle Central College, Washington.
- In this video recording, the panelists discuss topics ranging from bioacoustics to remote sensing and AI and answer questions from the audience.

Global Forest Watch offers mapping and data visualization fellowships
- Global Forest Watch has launched a new fellowship for people working to reduce deforestation within 23 countries in South America, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia.
- The July-December 2018 fellowship—including online training sessions, peer-to-peer interactions, and a 3-day in-person tech camp in Washington, D.C. —aims to help participants build technical skills, network with both peers and GFW staff, and implement a data-focused project.
- Fellowship applications are due June 15th, 2018, and GFW will notify the five fellows selected for this first cohort by July 1st.

One-stop shop for digital global maps launched
- A new online platform called Resource Watch makes over 200 geographically referenced global-scale data sets available for viewing and analysis.
- You can view and overlay spatial data layers on your own or explore analyses produced by the platform’s research staff.
- The developers hope that assembling a broad collection of environmental, economic, infrastructure, and social data in a single platform will promote understanding of the connections between human activities and natural systems and encourage more sustainable decision-making.

Unified land-use map for Indonesia nears launch, but concerns over access remain
- A unified database integrating all of the land-use maps currently in use in Indonesia is set for an earlier-than-expected launch this August, as the government scrambles to collate outstanding data from various agencies and regions.
- The one-map policy is seen as key to resolving a host of development and planning problems caused by overlapping and often contradictory maps wielded by different agencies, including the issue of plantations being permitted inside forest areas.
- The government, however, says access to the database will be restricted, and is drafting regulations that will govern who gets to see it.

Tech and collaboration are putting indigenous land rights on the map
- Tierras Indígenas’ advanced mapping technology is bringing South America’s Chaco ecosystem into the spotlight and allowing indigenous groups to digitally map out their territories in an effort to protect their forests.
- Mapping indigenous land rights and forest change requires collaboration among various stakeholders and standardization of data collection, using clear protocols, precise data, and participatory management.
- By accessing the Global Forest Watch and Tierras Indígenas platforms, users can view forest change in particular areas within the Gran Chaco ecoregion, as well as the legal status of indigenous land claims to those same areas.

Sarawak’s Penan now have detailed maps of their ancestral homeland
- Some 63 Penan communities came together to create 23 maps of their territory in central Borneo over the past 15 years.
- For three days in late November 2017, the Penan of the region celebrated the completion of the maps.
- The Penan now believe they are armed with the information that will help them hold on to their land in the face of pressure from outside timber and industrial agriculture interests.

Radar returns to remote sensing through free, near-real-time global imagery
- The European Space Agency’s launch of the Sentinel-1 satellite has made 20-meter resolution radar imagery of the whole planet freely available.
- The “all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface” complements standard optical satellite imagery in detecting forest loss, even under heavy cloud cover.
- The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) demonstrates the benefits of analyzing free radar imagery to accurately quantify wet season loss of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon.

Public access to Indonesian plantation data still mired in bureaucracy
- Indonesia’s agrarian ministry continues to hold out on releasing oil palm plantation data to the public, a year after the Supreme Court ordered it to comply with a freedom-of-information ruling.
- The ministry argues it is obliged to generate revenue from the release of such data, and that the lack of a payment mechanism prevents it from complying.
- It also initially dodged a request for similar data filed by the national mapping agency, citing the same reason, but complied after the anti-corruption agency intervened.

Detecting disasters on community lands in the Amazon: film highlights indigenous struggle
- For decades, indigenous communities across the western Amazon have protested the contamination of their water, soil and other natural resources by oil companies.
- A short film, “Detecting Disasters,” explores the use by the Kukama Kukamiria and other indigenous groups of small drones to strengthen their case to officials and reduce future damage to their health and that of their forest resources.
- The successful, consistent use of drones and other new technologies by remote communities requires overcoming several basic challenges, including adequate electricity, training time, and availability of parts to make repairs.

Scientists from Indonesia, Germany and the Netherlands win Indonesian Peat Prize
- A team of scientists from Indonesia, Germany and the Netherlands has won the Indonesian Peat Prize for coming up with a fast, accurate and cost-effective way to map Indonesia’s vast tropical peatlands.
- The judges praise the winning methodology’s versatility, speediness and accuracy in mapping peatlands.
- Indonesia will have two years to fully adapt the winning methodology into the new peat-mapping standard, although some government agencies are clamoring to start adopting the system immediately.

‘Eye of Papua’ shines a light on environmental, indigenous issues in Indonesia’s last frontier
- For decades the Papua region in Indonesia has remained the country’s least-understood, least-developed and most-impoverished area, amid a lack of transparency fueled by a strong security presence.
- Activists hope their new website, Mata Papua, or Eye of Papua, will fill the information void with reports, data and maps about indigenous welfare and the proliferation of mines, logging leases and plantations in one of the world’s last great spans of tropical forest.
- Companies, with the encouragement of the government, are fast carving up Papua’s land, after having nearly depleted the forests of Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo.

Indonesia prepares to adopt standardized peat-mapping technology
- The winner of a competition announced in 2016 to come up with a fast, accurate and cost-effective method to map Indonesia’s vast tropical peatlands will be announced on Feb. 2.
- The government currently lacks an authoritative map of its carbon-rich peat areas, which it urgently needs to enforce a policy of conserving existing peatlands and rehabilitating degraded areas.
- The country’s peatlands are important as stores of greenhouse gases and habitats for endangered species; but their drainage and deforestation, mostly for oil palm plantations, has made Indonesia one of the world’s biggest carbon emitters and contributed to loss of wildlife habitat.

Data fusion opens new horizons for remote imaging of landscapes
- Scientists use remotely sensed data from satellites to map and analyze habitat extent, vegetation health, land use change, and plant species distributions at various scales.
- Open-source data sets, analysis tools, and powerful computers now allow scientists to combine different sources of satellite-based data.
- A new paper details how combining multispectral and radar data enables more refined analyses over broader scales than either can alone.

New satellite data reveals forest loss far greater than expected in Brazil Amazon
- The Brazilian Amazon lost 184 km2 of forest in December 2017, 20 times more than was recorded in December 2016 (9 km2).
- The massive increase reflects Brazil’s use of a more accurate satellite monitoring system that incorporates radar, which can see land cover at night and through clouds, and suggests prior deforestation rates were likely underestimates.
- As the cost of radar and other satellite data decreases, continuous monitoring will enable officials and civil society to more accurately monitor and quantify forest loss over a broad range of spatial scales.

10 top conservation tech innovations from 2017
- The increased portability and reduced cost of data collection and synthesis tools have transformed how we research and conserve the natural world.
- Devices from visual and acoustic sensors to DNA sequencers help us better understand the world around us, and they combine with online mapping platforms to help us monitor it.
- New online and mobile apps have democratized data collection, inspiring a brave new world of citizen scientists to learn about the species around them, contribute to conservation and scientific discovery, and feel part of a learning community.
- Here, we present 10 tech trends we covered in 2017, in no particular order, that have helped us better understand nature, monitor its status, and take action to protect it.

Combining computing power and people power to identify key deforestation hotspots
- Technology now allows us to remotely locate and monitor areas of forest loss, creating the challenge of responding to areas with rampant deforestation.
- The Global Forest Watch platform has launched Places to Watch, a feature that highlights key areas of recent deforestation, especially near intact and protected forests.
- An automated process selects deforestation hotspots, which are then filtered and prioritized by experts using satellite imagery and locally-derived reports to select 10 “Places” each month.
- The GFW team aims to provide journalists, activists, and concerned citizens and government, with curated deforestation information to encourage action that prevents further loss in priority areas.

Where one predator meets another: tracking sharks and fishing effort
- Fishing boats kill over 100 million sharks each year, many of which are caught unintentionally (bycatch) and may be discarded at sea without being recorded, so data on their mortality are poor.
- Researchers used satellite telemetry and publicly available global fishing locations in Global Fishing Watch to compare movements of 10 blue sharks to fishing activity in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.
- Within a 110-day period, two of the 10 tagged sharks surfaced near three different boats that were likely fishing, based on their movement patterns.
- The research team wants to better understand how fishing fleets can limit fishing in areas when and where sharks and other non-target species gather or migrate each year.

As Indonesia pushes flagship land reform program, farmers remain wary
- Under a flagship agrarian reform program, the Indonesian government aims to give indigenous and other rural communities greater control over 127,000 square kilometers of land.
- President Joko Widodo earlier this month handed out 35-year land leases to farmers across Java as part of the social forestry program.
- The farmers, however, are concerned about the sustainability of the program, citing worries about getting bank loans, as well as a lack of maps and planning.

An early warning system for locating forest loss
- The Global Land Analysis & Discovery (GLAD) alert system accessed in Global Forest Watch uses satellite imagery to detect forest loss in areas as small as 30 m x 30 m.
- The system accesses and analyzes Landsat imagery for a subscriber’s area of interest, every week, and sends alerts of tree cover loss via email that enable users to respond to deforestation while it is still in its early stages.
- The alert system is now available for 22 countries and will expand to remaining humid tropical forests in the coming months.

Mapping how to feed 9 billion humans, while avoiding environmental calamity
- The “Safety Net” initiative aims to map the best opportunities for conservation and ecosystem restoration globally.
- That means incorporating data on variables ranging from species richness to climate trends to deforestation rates for every point on Earth’s surface.
- That task is being taken up by a consortium of groups led by RESOLVE, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.
- In this interview, RESOLVE’s chief scientist Eric Dinerstein talks about the Safety Net project.

Scientists plan to map a ‘safety net’ for Planet Earth
- The mapping effort, to be led by Washington, D.C.-based non-profit research organization RESOLVE together with Globaïa, an NGO based in Quebec, Canada, and Brazil’s Universidade Federal de Viçosa, aims to identify the most critical terrestrial regions to protect as we work towards the goal of conserving 50 percent of the world’s land area.
- Scientists and conservationists have argued for years that setting aside at least half of the world’s land mass as off-limits to human enterprise is necessary if we are to conserve our planet’s biodiversity.
- The “safety net” that RESOLVE and its partner institutions plan to map out will consist of a network of wildlife corridors that connect every protected area on Earth and link them up with other high-priority landscapes, as well, even those that are unprotected.

Study maps out reptiles’ ranges, completing the ‘atlas of life’
- The study’s 39 authors, from 30 institutions around the world, pulled together data on the habitats of more than 10,000 species of reptiles.
- They found little overlap with current conservation areas, many of which have used the numbers of mammal and bird species present as proxies for overall biodiversity.
- In particular, lizards and turtles aren’t afforded much protection under current schemes.
- The authors report that they’ve identified high-priority areas for conservation that protects reptile diversity, ranging from deserts in the Middle East, Africa and Australia, to grass- and scrublands in Asia and Brazil.

Birdwatching poised to take flight in Colombia, study reveals
- A new study identifies 67 communities with high potential for developing birdwatching ecotourism in Colombia.
- The country is home to more than 1,900 bird species, including 443 rare birds ‘highly valued by bird watchers.’
- The authors present ecotourism as an alternative to mining and logging as rural communities look for ways to develop economically after a decades-long conflict.

Citizen scientists use mobile apps to help “green” the ocean
- Marine debris litters beaches and underwater habitats across the globe, even in remote areas, where it harms hundreds of animal species, from corals to whales.
- Mobile phone apps have launched to encourage and assist volunteers in cleaning up marine habitats by facilitating the recording and sharing of their efforts via social media.
- Volunteers also become citizen scientists, as the apps compile data from thousands of clean-ups into global databases to permit analysis of trends in trash composition and distribution and to bring to light the damage being done by debris to marine creatures and systems.

Indonesia’s decision to share vessel tracking data ‘ill-advised,’ some say
- In June, Indonesia became the first country to share its Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data, which tracks location and activities of commercial fishing boats, with Global Fishing Watch which uses tools like satellite imagery to monitor environmental issues.
- While the move is praised by conservationists for its potential to deter illegal fishing, some observers argue that publishing the data will backfire on the location of Indonesia’s best fisheries.
- Supporters of the policy refute the claims saying that it will help Indonesian authorities intercept any sign of violations on the country’s oceans, and boost compliance among fishing businesses in sustainable marine and fisheries.

Scientists combine crowd-sourced field observations with land-use and climate models to identify steps for migratory bird protection
- Scientists used crowd-sourced data from the eBird platform to model how the distributions of 21 migratory bird species change throughout the year and to determine how these distributions overlap with protected areas and projected changes in climate and land-use.
- They found that the conversion of natural forest to agricultural and/or urban land uses will eliminate habitat in the near term, particularly in the birds’ tropical overwintering areas, while rising temperatures and diverse changes in rainfall would affect all points of the species’ ranges over the longer term.
- The researchers suggest that enhanced management of less strictly protected reserves in the birds’ wintering grounds could mitigate the near-term forest habitat losses where the birds spend nearly 60% of their time and perhaps give species time to respond to longer-term climate-related changes in food and habitat availability.

Land-swap rule among Indonesian President Jokowi’s latest peat reforms
- To prevent another round of devastating wildfires, Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s administration has issued a series of policies governing the management of peatlands — carbon-rich swamps that have been widely drained and dried by the nation’s agribusinesses, rendering them highly flammable.
- The administration hopes a new land-swap scheme will help it claw back peat from big oil palm and timber planters, providing a means to supply the firms with additional land elsewhere in the country.
- Business associations complain about the new policy, saying it’s not feasible for a company in Sumatra to move its operations all the way to Papua.
- Environmental pressure groups, meanwhile, call the regulation an unfair boon for large firms, providing a rapacious industry with more land than the vast amounts it already controls.

Why the Suy’uk are fact-checking their Dayak origin myth
- The Suy’uk are one of Indonesia’s hundreds of indigenous groups. They live in western Borneo.
- Like many communities, the Suy’uk are mapping their lands in the wake of a landmark decision by Indonesia’s highest court that took indigenous peoples’ forests out of state control.
- The government has dragged its feet in implementing the ruling, but mapping is seen as a prerequisite before indigenous groups can claim their rights.

Open-source species location data supports global biodiversity analyses
- The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is now the largest biodiversity database in the world with records of hundreds of millions of occurrences of over 1.7 million species, ranging from bacteria to blue whales.
- Institutions from over 50 countries contribute species occurrence and related data to the open-access platform, which make possible regional or global-scale analyses of data ranging from global distributions to invasive species and climate change impacts.
- As GBIF and other collaborative, open-source data bases continue to expand and mature, so will their usefulness to a greater range of scientific studies.

Ongoing mass extinction causing ‘biological annihilation,’ new study says
- Building on research in which they showed that two species have gone extinct per year over the past century, a team of biologists analyzed the population trends for 27,600 vertebrates around the world.
- They found that nearly a third of the animals they looked at were on the decline.
- In a closer look at 177 well-studied mammals, the team found that all had lost 30 percent or more of their home ranges, and 40 percent had lost at least 80 percent of their habitat.

Story-telling app and website help communities improve their ‘backyards’
- The TIMBY reporting platform applies the wide range of knowledge and experience of journalists, scientists, technologists, designers and security experts.
- Originally developed in Liberia to curb some of the impacts of illegal logging, the design and function of the TIMBY platform has been customized to fit the needs of the people facing conservation issues other locations.
- TIMBY has been used across the globe to address a wide array of issues, including environmental conservation in Chile, women’s health in Kenya, and information dissemination in Liberia.

Creating corridors: researchers use GPS telemetry data to map elephants’ movements
- Elephant corridors in the Tarangire-Manyara Ecosystem are threatened by human development, which has fragmented habitat and intensified human-elephant conflict.
- With GPS telemetry data from three bull elephants, researchers mapped the elephants’ habitat use and connectivity from 2006-2008 and compared it to data from 1960 using new analysis techniques.
- The expansion of agriculture and villages decreased corridor connectivity and disrupted elephants’ movements, according to results of a circuit theory model.

Location, location, location: Facts and FAQs about radio telemetry
- In this second of the Mongabay-Wildtech series on “What is that technology?” we examine radio telemetry, in the form of electronic tags used to monitor animals as they move about their daily lives to better understand how far they travel, what environments they use, and how to keep them safe.
- Radio-based tags and satellite-based tags, which include GPS tags, all communicate via radio signals but differ in how the signals communicate, the information they provide, and the energy needed to produce them.
- UHF and VHF radio tags–described in this post–are cheap, small, light, and long-lasting, but require human presence to receive the signals and locate the animal.
- Scientists can compile these point locations to map species’ local distributions, identify home ranges and migration patterns, and compare these with locations of water, food species, or human activity.

An interactive map connects landowners and forest change in one of the world’s most biodiverse places
- The Atlas of Deforestation and Industrial Plantations in Borneo documents the loss of rainforest over 40 years from oil palm and pulpwood plantations in one of Earth’s most biodiverse places.
- By connecting landowners and deforestation patterns publicly available, the atlas adds transparency to wood and oil palm supply chains.
- Allowing users to see how human impacts have reshaped Borneo is essential amid competing demands for cheap oil and conserved forest.

Mapping indigenous lands in Indonesia’s tallest mountains
- Local NGOs in the Baliem Valley of Indonesia’s Papua province are working with indigenous peoples to map their customary territories.
- Over the past two decades, one foundation has mapped 19 of the 27 customary territories in Papua’s Jayawijaya district.
- Some communities who were initially suspicious of the program have decided to trust it.

‘We can save life on Earth’: study reveals how to stop mass extinction
- Researchers analyzed 846 regional ecosystem types in 14 biomes in respect to the “Nature Needs Half” scientific concept that states proper functioning of an ecosystem requires at least half of it to be there.
- They found 12 percent of ecoregions had half their land areas protected while 24 percent had protected areas and native vegetation that together covered less than 20 percent.
- The study indicates the tropical dry forest biome is the most endangered. Closely behind it are two others: the tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, and the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. All are highly biodiverse, providing habitat for many species.
- The researchers say while many ecosystems have been highly degraded, achieving 50 percent protection is still possible – if current conservation goals are scaled up.

Indonesian Supreme Court orders Jokowi administration to hand over palm oil permit data
- Forest Watch Indonesia has been trying to force the Ministry of Land and Spatial Planning to release in full the maps of oil palm companies’ concessions, known as HGUs.
- The Supreme Court’s decision hands the NGO a victory in its freedom of information request, launched in 2015.
- Once it receives the hard copies of the documents, FWI will scan and upload them on its website.

Greenpeace to take Indonesian forestry ministry to Supreme Court over environmental data
- Greenpeace wants the ministry to release seven different geospatial maps of Indonesia in the shapefile format.
- The ministry is willing to publish PDF and JPEG versions of the maps, but it says shapefiles can’t be reliably authenticated and could therefore be altered by third parties.
- Greenpeace contends the shapefiles could quite simply be digitally signed.

Building environmental community and transparency through maps
- A new online mapping platform offers spatial data, mapping tools, hosting space, and advice/consulting services to help increase transparency in land use decision-making.
- Map for Environment was created to be an open repository for environmental data with simple data management and map publishing tools, especially for non-technical users.
- The platform provides the space and the tools for a decentralized community to share data and produce maps with minimal cost and hassle; for this to succeed, the environmental movement must embrace open-data principles and make critical data more broadly available.

Protecting Marine Protected Areas
- Worldwide, there are more than 13,500 MPAs, according to the Marine Conservation Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Seattle. These MPAs are created for many reasons, from preserving historical shipwrecks and cultural sites to conserving biodiversity and marine species.
- With restrictions that vary by location, it can be difficult for mariners to know what kinds of regulations apply in any given ocean space, or even to be aware that they have entered into a marine protected area.
- To improve awareness and management of marine protected areas, a team of technology experts, mapping specialists, and lawyers partnered with private enterprises and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to make it easier and more affordable for marine protected areas to live up to their names.

Indonesia adds more than 1,100 to the official tally of its islands
- The previous tally was 13,466, a figure produced by Indonesia’s geospatial agency in 2010.
- An oft-cited count is 17,508, a number put out by the military in the 1980s.
- Indonesia is by far the world’s largest archipelago country.

Free online analysis of forest change
- Global Forest Watch’s on-the-fly analysis tool calculates forest change within a specific area and time frame without experience using GIS software.
- The user can customize the area and time period of the analysis by drawing or uploading polygon shapes.
- These basic analysis tools can help users address a variety of forest spatial data questions.

New maps show how our consumption impacts wildlife thousands of miles away
- The study identified 6,803 threatened species, pinpointed the commodities that contribute to threats affecting those species, then traced the implicated commodities to final consumers in 187 countries.
- The maps revealed some unexpected linkages.
- These maps can help connect conservationists, consumers, companies and governments to better target conservation actions, researchers say.

Indonesia’s forestry ministry takes Greenpeace to court over freedom of information request
- Reformist President Joko Widodo has called for a more transparent approach to governance in the resource-rich Southeast Asian nation, and activists agree that his administration has been more open than those of his predecessors.
- At the same time, the administration has withheld from the public key data and documents related to the country’s forestry, agribusiness and mining sectors.
- Some civil society groups are seeking access to the shapefile format of certain data, which allows for much more sophisticated analysis than do the .jpeg and .pdf files the state is willing to part with.
- In October, Indonesia’s freedom of information commission ruled in favor of a case brought by Greenpeace, asking the forestry ministry to publish a number of geospatial maps in shapefile format. The ministry’s lawyers are challenging the decision, arguing that the shapefiles could be manipulated by third parties.

Indonesia seeks foreign funds to aid peat restoration drive
- The head of Indonesia’s peat restoration agency said corporate social responsibility and donor funds would not be enough to meet the country’s target.
- Indonesia’s finance ministry is preparing a reform package to provide incentives to invest in peat rehabilitation.
- The environment ministry has moved to issue five timber companies with administrative sanctions for complicity in wildfires burning on their concessions.
- Three companies had their licenses altogether revoked; land from two of those concessions will be converted into a buffer zone for Tesso Nilo National Park.

Identifying the drivers of Amazon deforestation through high-tech maps and stories
- The MAAP project scours remote sensing data for areas of new deforestation and revisits known deforestation hotspots to highlight activities that cause forest loss.
- The project publicizes deforestation “stories” via a combination of several remote sensing technologies through its website.
- The team’s reporting of “just the facts” has prompted conservation action from government agencies, civil society and the media.

New initiative to further creation of a single map in Indonesia’s Riau
- The lack of a single map of land-use claims and internal borders in Indonesia is a major impediment to sustainable development in the country.
- The government has embarked on a One Map initiative to fix this problem, but the project’s fruition is still years away.
- President Joko Widodo has set a target to complete the One Map initiative by 2019.

Piloting PALM Risk to detect palm oil-driven deforestation
- The PALM Risk Tool, hosted on World Resources Institute (WRI)’s Global Forest Watch (GFW) Commodities platform, uses satellite imagery to show deforestation risk around 800 palm oil mills.
- Corporations can use the tool to increase transparency, improve plantation practices, honor sustainable palm oil commitments and preserve endangered species’ habitat; government and civil society can use it to hold companies accountable to stopping rampant deforestation for palm oil.
- Piloting the technology, Unilever found 29 high-risk mills in its supply chain, and it will work with unsustainable suppliers to improve their operations and curb forest loss.

New map of Malaysia’s limestone hills will help set conservation priorities
- Limestone is a vital resource for the construction industry, meaning it is not likely that forest degradation and quarrying in a developing country like Malaysia, where 445 limestone hills have been recorded to date, will be halted any time soon.
- That means it’s crucial to identify which hills should be prioritized for conservation. But in order to make such decisions, spatial and biological data on Malaysia’s limestone hills must be quantified, mapped, and, ideally, made publicly accessible.
- The authors of a new study published in Tropical Conservation Science have done just that, compiling the first map of all of peninsular Malaysia’s 445 limestone hills based on information collected from geological reports and scientific literature.

Combining high-tech and low-tech to turn satellite images into action
- Remote sensing is not only a science, it’s also an art. And in order to interpret the imagery, you need a deep understanding of the land you’re studying.
- Satellite images can show us where the forest patches are, but they don’t tell us why. That information comes from communities.
- Information doesn’t automatically transform into a management action, and conservation scientists must learn how to turn scientific information and big data into engaging stories.

Online forest mapping made easy
- The online Global Forest Watch platform provides open access to frequently updated satellite imagery to allow any user to monitor forest change in a given country or other area.
- Within an interactive map, the user can view forest change data and related spatial data sets at scales ranging from a 30m x 30m pixel to the whole globe – basic user guidelines provided in this post.
- Speeding detection of forest loss improves management, conservation, and accountability.

Indigenous territories occupy 40 percent of protected land and marine areas in Central America
- The map shows that Indigenous territories comprise more than half of the region’s forests and many of its waterways, making Indigenous communities critical guardians of Central America’s most fragile ecosystems.
- At approximately 282,000 square kilometers (about 109,000 square miles), the total area covered by traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples in the region is more than five times the size of Costa Rica, and more than a third of that land has already been designated as protected by local governments.
- The IUCN map identifies 948 recognized terrestrial and marine protected areas in Central America, 39 percent of which — or some 96,432 square kilometers (a little over 37,000 square miles) — are home to Indigenous Peoples.

Singapore, Indonesia jostle over anti-haze measures
- The Indonesian environment minister said she was reviewing all bilateral collaborations with Singapore and that some would likely be terminated.
- Local governments in the archipelago have been instructed to hold off on any joint programs with Singapore for now.
- Jakarta has protested Singapore’s contention that it reserves the right to fine companies that pollute its air, wherever the firm is located.

Search, map, measure, and count
- Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) facilitate research and conservation work with their speed of travel, unique birds-eye viewpoint, automated programmable flight, and ability to access difficult terrain and sensitive species.
- Engineers and biologists are working together to apply these features of UAVs to solve research and management challenges and obtain valuable information that may otherwise be inaccessible.
- We present 10 of these creative applications of UAVs here, and we welcome user stories of others.

Malaysian palm oil companies say their concession maps are state secrets
- In the name of transparency, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil agreed in 2013 to release the concession maps of its grower members.
- Companies in Indonesia and Malaysia, the largest palm oil-producing countries, have resisted the dictum for various reasons, and the maps remain unpublished.
- NGOs want the maps so they can better monitor companies’ operations, which are often linked to deforestation, social conflict and wildfires in tropical countries.

Could conservation education in virtual reality help change the real world?
- New virtual reality (VR) apps can immerse the public in lifelike environments and experiences that raise ecological awareness and promote environmentally friendly behavior in real life.
- Cutting-edge VR could have myriad applications for conserving dwindling natural habitats, species and resources.
- Future improvements and ubiquity with more releases of competing consumer VR devices will make the technology a prominent environmental education tool.

Companies asked to pitch in to Indonesia’s peat restoration drive as early fires flare in Sumatra
- Twenty-two hotspots were spotted in Riau province on Thursday, with rain expected to quell them in mid-April.
- Central Kalimantan province, the worst-hit of last year’s fire and haze crisis, continues to suffer an urgent shortage of doctors, a local politician said.
- A prominent NGO official called on Jakarta to establish a dedicated agency to see through the all-important One Map initiative.

Participatory Mapping in the Mobile Age
- The Kogi people have a unique spiritual and ecological connection with the forests they live in, but the forest is now under threat from gold mining, agriculture, and human development.
- The Amazon Conservation Team is piloting an open-source phone app (ODK) to help the Kogi gather data and create geo-referenced maps of their land
- ACT and the Kogi plan to use the detailed digital maps to protect sacred and ecologically important sites from deforestation, and reclaim traditional land holdings.

Breakthrough: Indonesia’s highest court orders release of mining data
- The ruling is the result of a freedom of information request filed by NGOs in 2014.
- It pertains to Kutai Kartanegara, a district in East Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo.
- It could set a precedent for other freedom of information requests in the natural resources sector, whose opacity has come under increasing assault by civil society.

CyberTracking for Africa’s most endangered ape
- Protected area staff use the handheld tool CyberTracker to collect data and produce spatial and statistical analyses to guard gorillas in Cross River reserves.
- The system aids the conservation of the critically endangered Cross River gorilla, improving law enforcement by facilitating the monitoring of wildlife, human interferences and patrols.
- CyberTracker use is expanding to other reserves in West Africa and around the globe, both on its own and, in places like the Cross River landscape, in combination with SMART analysis software.

Indonesia’s oil palm maps remain hidden from public view. Why?
- In 2013, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil promised to publish its growers’ concession maps.
- That hasn’t happened, but the RSPO has pledged to make good on its commitment this year.
- Not everyone is on board with the initiative, however, and some doubt it will come to fruition. The public’s ability to monitor the industry hangs in the balance.

$1m for devising best way to map Indonesia’s peatlands
- Bad maps have undermined Indonesia’s development for a long time.
- For one, they have made it tough to fight the annual forest and peatland fires.
- Now, the government wants to establish a national standard for mapping the country’s peat. It will do so through a competition, the Indonesian Peat Prize.

Want to keep tabs on that new logging road in Peru? Well, now you can
- The new GLAD alert system offers a big improvement over previous systems that needed a year to broadcast their data.
- Its early numbers for 2016 indicate deforestation in some areas may be happening a lot faster than last year.
- Analysts say this data could help governments, NGOs, and communities better monitor their forests, as well as more quickly and effectively address deforestation.

Indonesia could collaborate with RSPO, official study finds
- A new study reveals how the government’s sustainable palm oil scheme, ISPO, might work with the industry-led Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
- The study, sanctioned by the government and the RSPO. identifies similarities and differences between the two certification schemes.
- The RSPO has higher environmental standards than ISPO, but ISPO is mandatory for all Indonesian growers.

New mapping platform sees the forest for the carbon
- New research finds cutting carbon emissions from tropical deforestation in half is one way to keep global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius by 2020.
- The platform pegs the average global emissions of tropical deforestation at 2,270 million metric tons per year over the past decade. Brazil is responsible for nearly 47 percent of that.
- Researchers say that if emissions from tropical deforestation are to be halved in the next five years, Brazil will need to dramatically reduce its deforestation and keep it low.

First-of-its-kind mapping platform could help protect land held by Indigenous communities
- Beta version of the unique online platform, LandMark, was launched on November 10.
- LandMark makes global data on land held and used by communities and indigenous peoples accessible on a single platform.
- Platform aims to “make clear that community lands are not vacant, idle or available to outsiders,” according to statement.

A Borneo village maps its land to protect against encroachers
- With assitance from NGOs, residents of Punan Adiu village in North Kalimantan have finished mapping their customary territory.
- At certain moments, the mapping campaign exposed latent conflicts between Punan Adiu and its neighbors, but residents were able to reach a compromise.
- Indigenous rights advocates hope the process can become a model for other communities.

Sunrise to sunset: documenting warbler migrations with cheap, light geolocator tags
- Geolocator tags have become small enough to be used on tiny birds, such as the prothonotary warbler.
- Researchers now know far more about warbler migration routes, which will facilitate conservation plans for this species.
- An initial warbler study showed that the small birds winter in northern Colombia, where their preferred habitat is currently under threat from human activity.

Plantation companies challenged by haze-causing fires in Indonesia
- Six major plantation companies spoke with Mongabay about their efforts to battle haze-causing fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
- All acknowledged challenges in battling peat fires. All blamed illegal encroachers or fires that spread from outside their concession areas.
- All six companies – Asia Pulp & Paper, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), Golden Agri Resources (GAR), Cargill, Wilmar, and Musim Mas – contacted by Mongabay responded.

Researchers find ‘hidden tapestry’ of plant chemicals in Amazon forest

Aerial view of flowering canopy trees in the Amazon. New research has found significant chemical differences between tree species that occupy just slightly different habitats. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The Amazon rainforest might seem like a massive expanse of monotonous green. However, a recent study has found that within this monotony lies a kaleidoscope […]
Satellite-based forest mapping platform hits its stride

Global Forest Watch, a young online forest monitoring and alert system, provides free, near real-time data on deforestation and tree-cover loss around the world. It allows users to create customized interactive maps detailing forest change, concession areas for natural resource extraction and agricultural production, conservation areas, and community land boundaries. The system acts as a […]
First-of-its-kind mapping technique sheds new light on tropical forests

Rainforest in Kinabatangan, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts have developed vegetation height maps for the entire tropics at very fine spatial scales. These first-of its-kind high resolution maps can help researchers estimate forest cover, monitor biodiversity and wildlife habitats, and manage and monitor […]
New mapping project uncovers road networks in Peru’s primary forests

A logging road transects Peruvian rainforest (this is not an image of one of the newly detected roads). Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Roads spread out like multi-fingered tendrils, eating into the surrounding forests of Cordillera Azul National Park, in the Department of Loreto in Peru. What is their purpose? Are they being built legally? […]
A tale of two maps: Brazilian state won’t use new atlas to close Cerrado deforestation loophole

A remnant tree looms over the landscape in southwestern Tocantins state. Photo credit: Brendan Borrell Farmers in north-central Brazil, where the savanna meets the Amazon rainforest, are clearing land at an unprecedented rate. The government hasn’t stopped the cutting, partly because it is using inaccurate, outdated maps that hugely underestimate the extent of its endangered […]
River flooding to affect 40M people annually by 2030

WRI flood map for Indonesia 20.7 million people are affected by river flooding each year, and the number is expected to more than double by 2030 as population growth, urban expansion, and climate change will increasingly put people at risk. This according to the World Resources Institute (WRI), who recently released the Aqueduct Global Flood […]
Mapping local communities’ efforts to protect forests in Indonesia

Local and indigenous communities play an important role managing and protecting forests. Research published in 2014 by World Resources Institute and the Rights and Resources Initiative concluded that community-managed forests experienced an average deforestation rate that is eleven times lower than land outside their borders. Legally recognized, community-managed forest amounts to 513 million hectares or […]
When is a forest a forest? How definitions affect monitoring

This is the second in a two-part series about advances in mapping technology and how they’re being used to keep a closer eye on the world’s forests. Read the first part here. This acacia timber plantation in Colombia may be defined as forest by satellite data. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. “We live in a […]
Radical transparency: tracking deforestation through satellite imagery

This is the first in a two-part series about advances in mapping technology and how they’re being used to keep a closer eye on the world’s forests. Read the second part here. Floating softly through the vacuum of space, the Landsat 7 satellite has faithfully provided imaging of the entirety of earth’s surface, every 16 […]
New mapping technique sheds light on dry forests

Researchers map out poorly understood dry tropical forests in Southeast Asia; technique may help protect wildlife living within Trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae dominate the forests of Southeast Asia. These long-lived hardwood trees grow to impressive heights of more than 50 meters (164 feet), and have small seeds with conspicuous wings that aid in dispersal […]
Ranking the world’s best – and worst – palm oil companies in terms of sustainability

Screenshot of the mapping function of the Sustainable Palm Oil Transparency Toolkit, powered by ESRI. Click image to enlarge. A new initiative ranks the world’s 25 largest publicly listed palm oil companies in terms of transparency around the environmental performance of their operations. The project, called Sustainable Palm Oil Transparency Toolkit or SPOTT, was developed […]
Mapping mistake leaves wildlife at risk

Administrative maps show DRC’s Luama Katanga Reserve in the wrong place, letting mining concessions and agriculture threaten the reserve’s unique wildlife – including a new plant species. Scientists have discovered a new, endangered plant species in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in an area that is supposed to be protected as a reserve. However, […]
Peru has massive opportunity to avoid emissions from deforestation

Carnegie Airborne Observatory map showing carbon in along the main stem of the Amazon in Peru. All images courtesy of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory/Greg Asner Nearly a billion tons of carbon in Peru’s rainforests is at risk from logging, infrastructure projects, and oil and gas extraction, yet opportunities remain to conserve massive amounts of forest […]
Google’s new Gombe Street View lets users ‘walk’ along chimp trails and into Jane Goodall’s house

New maps allow public exploration of the area Goodall has used for research for nearly fifty years Google Maps is now available for Tanzanian forest paths. Users can walk virtually along the same trails Jane Goodall has used for decades of chimpanzee study — and even into her house. Gombe Street View, a joint effort […]
Researchers create global map of world’s forests circa 1990

Global distribution of forest cover, circa-1990. Click image to enlarge Researchers have created a global map of the world’s forests in the year 1990, enabling accurate comparisons between past and current deforestation rates. The GIS data underpinning the map is available at LandCover.org. The research, published by University of Maryland scientists in the journal Remote […]
World’s rainforests could be mapped in 3D at high resolution by 2020 for under $250M

Forest map in the Peruvian Amazon developed from the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, an airplane-based platform that uses advanced LiDAR to measure forest carbon values and other properties. Photo courtesy of the Carnegie Institution for Science Mapping the world’s tropical forests with a fleet of airplanes outfitted with advanced LiDAR could rapidly and accurately assess global […]
Canada, Russia, Brazil lead world in old-growth forest loss

World lost nearly 10 percent of its untouched forests in just over 10 years, according to new analysis Every day, the world loses about 50,000 hectares of forest to agricultural clearing, road development, and other human activities, constricting true wilderness into smaller and smaller areas – along with the species that inhabit them. New analysis […]
Where should the roads go? New map offers a solution to the ‘Pandora’s Box of environmental problems’

Map shows where roads should be built, where they should not, and where human and environmental needs conflict Roads make it possible to bring goods to market, to get to the office, to log a forest, to hunt its wildlife. Without roads, human society as we know it could not exist. However, to build roads, […]
Next big idea in forest conservation? Maps for the masses

Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation: Q&A with Dr. Mark Mulligan Swamp forest in Western Colombia. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Mark Mulligan makes maps for the masses. In his work on tropical forests, Mulligan uses GIS, modeling, remote sensing, and lab experiments to turn research into datasets and policy support systems, which are available online […]
Next big idea in forest conservation? Global road map to mitigate damage from roads

Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation: Q&A with William F. Laurance Logging road in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. In the world of conservation, Dr. William Laurance is a household name. He has worked in tropical systems, worldwide, for over 25 years, publishing over 300 articles, five books and receiving numerous awards and honors for […]
Democratizing forest monitoring on a global scale

Deforestation mapping goes global with Stanford’s free online training platform Efforts to map and analyze deforestation and forest degradation got a boost today when Stanford University announced a new online course that provides training on how to use advance forest monitoring software. The course, which is freely available via Stanford University Online Learning, could immediately […]
Top 10 Environmental Stories of 2013

Also see our Top 10 HAPPY environmental stories of 2013. Elephant in South Africa. The poaching crisis in Africa is number six on our annual top ten list. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. 1. Carbon concentrations hit 400ppm while the IPCC sets global carbon budget: For the first time since our appearance on Earth, carbon […]
Deforestation accelerates in Indonesia, finds Google forest map

Forest loss in Indonesia has sharply risen over the past 12 years, reports a new study published in the journal Science. The study, led by Matt Hansen of University of Maryland, finds that Indonesia lost 15.8 million hectares between 2000 and 2012, ranking it fifth behind Russia, Brazil, the United States, and Canada in terms […]
Powered by Google, high resolution forest map reveals massive deforestation worldwide

Researchers today released a long-awaited tool that reveals the extent of forest cover loss and gain on a global scale. Powered by Google’s massive computing cloud, the interactive forest map establishes a new baseline for measuring deforestation and forest recovery across all of the world’s countries, biomes, and forest types. The map has far-reaching implications […]
Indonesian group vows to map 30 million hectares of customary forest in 7 years

An indigenous peoples’ rights group has vowed to map millions of hectares of customary land in Indonesia, an ambitious target it hopes will help protect indigenous forests from encroachment by palm oil and pulp and paper concessions. Last May, indigenous peoples in Indonesia won a major victory regarding their rights to customary lands, after a […]
Whale shark mapping: scientists uncover global distribution for the largest fish in the world

Polka-dotted and striped. Massive but docile. That’s the whale shark for you – the largest fish and shark in the world. But despite being major tourist attractions, the lives of these awe-inspiring creatures of the ocean remain far from being demystified. However, a team of researchers from Australia may now have some answers to where […]
New maps highlight global conservation priorities

What region of the world has the most imperiled mammals? Where are the most bird species found? And where are new amphibians being discovered? Indonesia and Malaysia is the answer to the first question; the Amazon, the second; and the Andes, the third. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences […]
Using drones to monitor wildlife in India
- Drones have been getting a bad rap lately and for good reason.
- However in the state of Assam, these commonly used weapons of warfare are being used to monitor the rhinoceros population.
- The Kaziranga National Park in Assam has deployed aerial drones to monitor poaching activity within the park’s boundaries to protect the endangered one-horned rhino population.

Male lions require dense vegetation for successful ambush hunting

Female lion with wildebeest kill in Tanzania. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. For a long time male lions were derided as the lazy ones in the pride, depending on females for the bulk of hunting and not pulling their weight. Much of this was based on field observations—female lions hunt cooperatively, often in open savannah, […]
Featured video: Saving the Amazon through maps
In a new video ethnobotanist, Mark Plotkin, talks about recent—and historical—efforts to preserve the Amazon rainforest through map-making and technology. Today scientists like Plotkin are teaching indigenous people how to digitally map their territory to win land rights over the forest they’ve used for centuries. Nearly 20 percent of the Amazon has been lost due […]
New forest map shows 6% of Amazon deforested between 2000 and 2010

RAISG’s map of the Amazon. An update to one of the most comprehensive maps of the Amazon basin shows that forest cover across the world’s largest rainforest declined by about six percent between 2000 and 2010. But the map also reveals hopeful signs that recognition of protected areas and native lands across the eight countries […]
3-D laser mapping shows elephants have big impact on trees

Herd of elephants crossing a river in Kenya. Photo by: Rob Roy. Scientists have long known that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are talented tree-topplers, able to take down even large trees in order to gobble out-of-reach leaves. However the extent of his behavior across a large area has been difficult to quantify. But a new […]
Global wetlands shrink 6% in 15 years

Map of extent of global wetlands. Courtesy of Prigent et al 2012. Click image to enlarge. Global wetlands declined by six percent between 1993 and 2007 due to conversion for agriculture, drainage, and water diversion, reports a new satellite-based assessment published by European researchers in Geophysical Research Letters. The study, which tracked changes in wetland […]
Google brings Street View, Maps to the Amazon (photos)

The Google Street View team in the Brazilian Amazon. Courtesy of Google. Google has posted images of a stretch of rainforest and communities along the Amazon river on its Street View product available via Google Maps. The addition makes it possible to virtually explore communities and ecosystems in Earth’s largest tropical forest. “Now anyone can […]
Guyanese tribe maps Connecticut-sized rainforest for land rights

Overlooking rainforest in Guyana. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. In a bid to gain legal recognition of their land, the indigenous Wapichan people have digitally mapped their customary rainforest land in Guyana over the past ten years. Covering 1.4 million hectares, about the size of Connecticut, the rainforest would be split between sustainable-use regions, sacred areas, […]
Rainforests store 229 billion tons of carbon globally finds ‘wall-to-wall’ carbon map

Biomass map. Courtesy of WHRC. Click here for a zoom-able version. Tropical rainforests store some 229 billion tons of carbon in their vegetation — about 20 percent more than previously estimated — finds a new satellite-based assessment published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The findings could help improve the accuracy of reporting CO2 emissions […]
Global map of REDD+ projects released

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) on Saturday released a comprehensive map of the world’s REDD+ programs. The map includes 340 REDD+ projects, programs, and policies in 52 countries. CIFOR says the intent of the map is to provide a one-stop place for seeing how REDD is being implemented around the world. “We did […]
Community mapping of African rainforests could show way forward for preservation, REDD

Screenshot of new website of community mapping in central Africa’s forests. A new initiative to place community mapping of central African rainforests online could prove key to local rights in the region, says the UK-based NGO Rainforest Foundation. Working with forest communities in five African countries, Rainforest Foundation has helped create digital maps of local […]
New global carbon map for 2.5 billion ha of forests

2.5-billion-ha carbon map shows forests store 250B tons of carbon Forest carbon stock. Click image to enlarge Tropical forests across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia stored 247 gigatons of carbon — more than 30 years’ worth of current emissions from fossil fuels use — in the early 2000s, according to a comprehensive assessment of […]
Forest carbon map released for the US

The National Biomass and Carbon Dataset (NBCD) map of the continental US courtesy of Woods Hole Research Center. Click to enlarge. The Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) has released the first hectare-scale map displaying aboveground woody biomass and forest carbon in US forests. The map, which also shows canopy heights, is known as the National […]
Indigenous peoples of Congo map their forests with GPS in an effort to save them

Indigenous peoples of Congo map their forests with GPS in an effort to save them Indigenous peoples of Congo map their forests with GPS in an effort to save them Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com April 13, 2008 This week over five hundred villagers in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s rainforest will employ GPS technology to map […]

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