Forest Report
Forest Report is a tracking software for companies, government agencies, conservation groups, and watchdogs to keep tabs on deforestation in a given area. Forest Report essentially aggregates information coming from satellites, cameras, or field sensors into an interactive dashboard displaying a map of the forest that highlights areas of deforestation. Forest Report is a product created by the technology company MapHubs, whose mission is to create new and improved GIS tools to make monitoring deforestation much faster and more effective. The company website implies that they provide information in their software package that contains localized information on the location and source of deforestation around the world, such as mining in the Congo or palm oil plantations supplanting native forests in Indonesia. MapHub claims that their software has alerted conservation and watchdog groups to illegal deforestation and extraction resulting in legal suits against companies and governments alike. However, this is also a product sold by MapHub to interested parties, with no price listed on their website. In order to purchase and use Forest Report, one has to meet and consult with MapHub about the tool; information about pricing isn’t readily available, so it is hard to judge whether or not this tool is financially feasible. It also isn’t entirely clear how Forest Report receives data; does MapHub provide updated base maps from satellites about forest cover? Does the organization using Forest Report have to work with Map Hub to integrate its monitoring tools? Because Forest Hub being sold privately it is difficult for these questions to be answered.
“Forest Report.” MapHub. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://www.forest.report/
Categories
Data, Ecological Monitoring, Illegal Resource Extraction, Industry/Natural Commodities, Monitoring, Regulation
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