Natural Resources Management – Page 2

Agriculture, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Environment, Environmental Compliance, eWaste, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Pollution Prevention

Nigeria’s Mobile Phone Base Stations Go Green

Photo Credit: E-Site

Bharti Airtel, an international telecommunications company, has announced a deal with Ericsson, a leading provider of mobile telecommunications equipment, to use Flexenclosure’s green energy solution called E-site for upgrading an initial lot of 250 mobile phone base stations powered by diesel in Nigeria.

The contract enables Ericsson to be responsible for implementation and maintenance services for all the sites. “The new green and highly cost efficient base station solution makes not only environmental sense, but also financial sense for our customers, enabling the efficient deployment of services to previously unserved or under-served areas,” Ericsson Head of Sub-Saharan Africa Region Lars Linden said.

Airtel has successfully tested the solution in Kenya and has experienced significant reduction in diesel usage and CO2 emissions against a round-the-clock diesel powered site. The company also believes that the ‘green’ mobile initiative will improve operations and minimize base stations’ environmental impact.

Flexenclosure is a Swedish start-up that develops innovative solutions for energy-efficient mobile phone coverage in developing nations. The advanced control system of the E-site solution assures the storage of optimal power from the alternative energy sources (solar or wind) and the process is efficiently managed through the utilization of its battery bank.

The company estimates that there are 40,000 mobile phone base stations in Africa, and most of those rely on a diesel engine for power. Each base station takes anything up to 5200 gallons of the increasingly expensive hydrocarbon soup each year to ensure that people will be able to use their mobile phones. That’s around 210,000,000 gallons of diesel every single year, which isn’t good for the environment or the profit margins of the mobile providers. The technology has the potential to lower diesel usage by up to 80% – that’s a saving of 169,000,000 gallons of diesel each year for African telecommunication companies and that’s the byproducts of burning 169 million gallons of diesel that won’t be entering our atmosphere.

November 14, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Environment, Environmental Compliance, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Pollution Prevention

Join the World’s First Social Energy Marketplace Today!

At a recently ended Web 2.0 Summit held in San Francisco California, a Berlin-based startup called Changers announced the release of a portable solar charging system that aims to reduce global warming by shifting society to the use of a currency backed by the sun. The Changers Solar System gives the user a way to harness the sun’s energy, liberates the user from the grid, recharges all kinds of devices, helps the user to socialize his/her energy production, and enables him/her to compete with others to earn Changers Credits that can be spent in the Changers Marketplace.

The Changers Starter Kit which is open for a pre-order beginning now as you read this piece, includes the revolutionary Changers Kalhuohfummi solar battery and the Changers Maroshi solar module and costs $149. The Changers Kalhuohfummi is a simple, one-button device that communicates with Changers.com. Inside is advanced intelligence that accurately measures how much energy it captures and stores in the built-in battery, ready to charge any smartphone or tablet. The Changers Kalhuohfummi solar battery is powered by the Changers Maroshi flexible solar module, which generates up to four Watts per hour — enough to charge the Kalhuohfummi battery in four hours. The Changers Maroshi solar panel, which is produced in Colorado, USA, can be attached to any window or sunny surface.

The Director of Communications, Hans Raffauf explains how the technology works:

http://youtu.be/Ee9WW2J8FdE

The system helps you to:

Capture the Sun: Produce your own energy. The Changers personal solar charging kit enables any of us to produce and consume renewable energy. Now, anyone can start producing energy and know exactly how much CO2 they’ve saved. Find a sunny spot, plug it in, and start harnessing the natural energy of the sun. Pretty soon, you’ll be much more aware of where you get the best sunlight and how to optimize your energy production and consumption.
Charge your Device: Change your thinking. Plug in your Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod, Android, Kindle (or any of 1,000 other devices) and charge it using the energy you captured. The Changers Kalhuohfummi will recharge your device as fast as a regular charger and radically change the way you think about energy. Now, you’re a Changer – an autonomous producer and consumer of your own renewable energy.
Become Part of a Movement: Tell the world. Upload your energy production statistics to the Changers community to visualize your actual CO2 savings. See how much energy you’ve produced and compare your score with others. Share your experience and contribution via Facebook and Twitter. Your pioneering actions will inspire others to follow.
Get Rewarded: Turn your green behavior into Changers Credits. The amount of energy you produce is automatically converted into Changers Credits, which can be spent at retail partners on the Changers Marketplace who share your commitment to a greener planet.

To know more and become social with green energy use go to Changers

November 8, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environment, Environment, Environmental Compliance, Forestry, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Innovations for Climate Change Resilience!

Photo Credit: Resurgence

One of the new approaches to the Climate Change menace being explored by most of the key stakeholders in the sector is the “Resilience” approach which focuses on enabling communities to better withstand, recover from, and adapt to the changing conditions posed by climate change.

This approach cannot be fully functional in this information age without the central role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in general, and mobile technologies in specific. This is becoming obvious especially in the continent of Africa where the increase in terms of the number of mobile phone subscribers and penetration has been greatest. Recognizing this, the Global Humanitarian Forum together with Ericsson, the World Meteorological Organization, National Meteorological Services (NMSs), the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Zain and other mobile phone operators are aiming to deploy up to 5,000 automatic weather stations (AWSs) at wireless network sites across Africa within the next few years. This public-private-partnership aims to reinforce the capacities and the capabilities of national meteorological services with the goal of supporting local communities worst impacted by climate change through the improvement of weather monitoring.

In early 2009, the president of the Global Humanitarian Forum, Mr. Kofi Annan announced the Weather Information for All (WIFA) Initiative and as of the end of June, the WIFA Initiative have completed Phase I through installation of 19 AWSs in three East African countries – 1 in Kenya, 9 in Tanzania and 9 in Uganda. All 19 AWSs are fully operational and successfully transferring raw weather data to the National Meteorological Stations (NMSs). Automatic weather stations (AWS) are automated type of traditional weather stations that enable measurements from remote areas to save human labor. While AWS are known to deliver via local link to a computer system or via telecommunications or satellite systems, GSM mobile phone technology has also been used.

The clip below tells the Climate Change story and the efforts by the Global Humanitarian Forum to build the resilience for vulnerable communities:

The phase II of the Initiative is currently ongoing with the target of about 500 AWSs to be progressively installed throughout Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with the later addition of Burundi and Rwanda. A recent report by Uganda at the beginning of this year emphasized the utilization of mobile phone technology to develop a sustainable warning service that reduces the vulnerability of communities in the Lake Victoria Region to weather hazards. The report indicated that the quality of data being collected by the AWSs located at mobile phone mast sites is evaluated through a systematic and scientific (peer reviewed) data trial. This has led to the routine dissemination of more accurate, timely and reliable weather forecasts and warnings to the pilot communities of fishermen, in Uganda, for the duration of the trial. Seasonal and other weather information provided via Uganda Department of Meteorology website and disseminated via mobile WEB, or WAP, for the duration of the pilot for the chosen agricultural communities.

Approximately 70% of Africans rely on farming for their livelihood, and over 95% of Africa’s agriculture depends on natural rainfall – rain-fed agriculture. At the same time, rural farmers across the continent are known to utilize the strength of their local knowledge, skills, experiences, observation and insights to maintain or improve their livelihood in the absence of scientific resources. Unfortunately, the “Wicked Problem” of climate change is rendering some of these innovations and experiences unreliable. The dwindling weather and climate is preventing rural farmers from accurately predicting the weather and thereby thwarting them from making informed decisions, such as when to plant and harvest their crops.

In addition to this direct utilization of mobile technologies to gather weather information remotely and deliver up-to-date information to computer systems that are being used by rural communities, the ubiquitous use of mobile technologies could be see in a host of other subsidiary areas. A Reuters article pointed out at least ten ways by which ICTs and mobile technologies could help in climate change adaptation. Among these are:

i) The use of mobile phones, community radio and the Internet to enable information sharing, awareness raising and capacity building on key health threats, enabling effective prevention and response;

ii) ICT applications such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are being used to facilitate the monitoring and provision of relevant environmental information to relevant stakeholders, including decision-making processes for the adaptation of human habitats;

iii) Mobile phones and SMS are being used for reporting locally-relevant indicators (e.g. likelihood of floods) to greater accuracy and more precise flood warnings to communities;

iv) Access to insurance and information about national programs/assistance available to support vulnerable populations after floods, hurricanse, and others are being made possible through the Internet or the mobile phone;

v) ICTs are being used to enhance information about pest and disease control, planting dates, seed varieties, irrigation applications, and early warning systems, as well as improving market access, among others;

vi) Mobile phones can serve as tools to disseminate information on low-cost methods for desalination, using gray water and harvesting rainwater for every day uses, as well as for capacity building on new irrigation mechanisms, among others.

Mobile technologies are of no doubt capable of helping to prepare vulnerable communities to deal with stresses and disturbances as a result of climate change, while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning, hence an excellent tool for climate change resilience.

November 7, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Environment, Environmental Compliance, eWaste, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

“All that Glitters is Not Always Gold”, Says Van Aartsen!

Photo Credit: IISD

“Using ICT for a greener economy is important, but also complex. It’s a solution, but also a challenge, says former Dutch Minister of Agriculture and current Mayor of The Hague Jozias van Aartsen. Mr Van Aartsen said this during his final keynote speech at the just ended ICT for Greener Economy Mini-Conference in Developing Countries organized by IICD as part of its 15^th Anniversary celebration.

Pointing out the ‘two-edged sword nature’ of ICTs in the Green Economy, the Mayor of The Hague mentioned some contributions that ICTs could make to the greener economy as well as the challenges of the new technologies. With the focus of the conference on the developing nations, Mr Van Aartsen was very passionate about the prospects of encouraging farmers in developing countries to participate in the green economy through organic farming, which could improve their livelihoods within the green economy. These farmers would have to be certified thereby enabling them to use their organic status to add value to their crops since the goods would have to be traced and tracked through the whole value chain system.

Mr Van Aartsen continued that besides tracking and tracing, ICTs also bring people together, helping them to educate themselves and improve their businesses. He cited a group of organic coffee farmers from Ecuador who are using their online network to receive essential support on inputs, crop management and marketing. He also mentioned the potential use of ICTs in water harvesting, drip irrigation, and intelligent planting schemes – all of which can help the farmer to get greater volumes and higher quality yields from the land in a sustainable way.

Touching on the other side of the coin, Mr Van Aartsen stated that “ICT use does not only result in greater demand for energy. Greater efficiency also leads to greater consumption”. He cautioned that when applying ICTs to solutions for greener economy, actors should make sure that they have made a proper cost-benefit analysis. When considering energy efficient solutions, actors should make use of clean energy sources such as solar energy. The overall goal should be “how sustainability of local economies can be strengthened, especially how income and food can be secured for the less privileged”.

Innovative Solutions to Water and Sanitation Challenges Emerge from Collaborative “WaterHackathon”

The World Bank and several technology partners held the first global WaterHackathon, inviting computer programmers, designers and other ICT specialists to develop solutions to water and sanitation (WASH) development challenges.

Photo credit: World Bank

The hackathon took place simultaneously in ten locations, including Washington DC, Nairobi, Bangalore, and Lima. The World Bank reports that “nearly 1000 people registered worldwide to participate in the event…to try to solve – ‘hack’ – more than 100 water problems.” A team of water experts sat down with ICT experts to identify these problems beforehand, which were related to on-going World Bank water projects.

One of the pre-defined problems was with the water utility customer service center in Botswana. The center is often so overwhelmed by calls regarding bill status that many customers abandon payment efforts or are forced to travel to the service center just to receive simple answers about their bills.

The winning hack team, comprised of students from George Mason University at the Washington DC Hackathon, developed a prototype that simulated customers in Botswana sending and instantly receiving SMS messages with simple answers to bill-related questions. The solution could save customers time as well as improve revenue and operating efficiency for the water utility.

Other winners included a tool created by a team in Kampala that crowd sources and visualizes water-related problems in communities, as well as a smartphone tool to help consumers understand their water usage over time. In Bangalore, a winning team developed an app that links an SMS stream to an ongoing project, allowing implementers to track, gather, and analyze data about their projects. OpenStreetMap made hydrological data from the Ministry of Agriculture public for the first time at the Lima Hackathon.

Water Hackathon in Lima; courtesy of World Bank

Each Hackathon location provided outlets for showcasing and refining the winning solutions, some winners receiving spots in local technology centers to further develop their products. Event organizers will continue to track the outcomes of the events, and many teams have connected with teams in other locations in order to foster future collaboration.

October 31, 2011/by actualize

Energy, Environment, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

ICT4 Greener Economy in Developing Countries: Mini Conference

Credit: Sustain2Green

As the Rio+20 draws near, a number of international conferences and summits aim at deliberating on sustainable environment and climate change across the globe are being convened. One of such is the mini conference on ICT for a Greener Economy in Developing Countries to be held next month (October 25^th) in the Netherlands.

The ‘ICT for a Greener Economy in Developing Countries’ mini-conference is an event that will explore and highlight the key role Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) play in moving towards greener economies. It is being organized on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). The conference will bring together experts in the area of climate change and ICTs including Kentaro Toyama, the co-founder of Microsoft Research (MSR) India and a prominent scholar in ICT4D with the name ICT4D jester.

The conference will also see the official launching of “Bits4green initiative” which was set up by IICD, the Dutch corporate sector and World PC. The initiative focuses on reducing energy consumption and e-waste in developing countries. By supporting Bits4Green, companies show that they are investing in clean energy and actively working on a global reduction of electronic waste and energy use in developing countries. It also creates opportunities for entrepreneurs in the IT industry to actively contribute to a more sustainable and green use of ICT.

The design, production, use and disposal of information and communications technologies (ICTs) are contributing to the global environmental crisis. Even though the ICT sector’s contribution to global CO2 emissions is at the low side compare to other sectors (2–2.5%), it is projected to double by 2020. Developing countries are paying more for ICTs at the end of their life cycles (disposal) where, vast quantities of ICTs become highly specialized waste that includes environmentally hazardous metals like lead, mercury and cadmium, as well as toxic flame retardants and plastics. According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), about 80% of all the e‑waste that is diverted – out of a yearly global e‑waste production of about 40 million tones is exported to developing countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Nigeria and Ghana.

At the same time, the expectations of developing countries to take advantage of the green economy through sustained growth model which will feature environmental-friendly technologies, use more renewable resources, and reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions, is high. Major developing countries like China have been sparing no efforts in developing green economy, which is widely regarded as a viable way of restoring job growth, reducing poverty and achieving a more sustainable economy. A joint report Why a Green Economy Matters for the Least Developed Countries issued at the start of the 4^th UN conference by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) and launched in Istanbul this year also points to the economic and human development opportunities of a green economy transition for the world’s least developed countries (LDCs). The report argues that LDCs face unprecedented vulnerabilities across a range of challenges and a the shift to a global green economy can put LDCs in an opportune position if the right enabling policies are put in place nationally and internationally.

The time to weigh the pros and cons of ICTs and green economy in the developing nations is now!

September 28, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Climate Change, Environment, Forestry, Land Management, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Policy Development

ICT and Citizen Science

Maryland Science Center – Citizen Science – C3.

The Maryland Science Center is developing a smartphone application to allow users to measure and monitor the urban heat island effect. “UNI provides a glimpse” according to their website, “at what the world may look like with warmer temperatures.” This will help urban planners and inhabitants to develop strategies to cope, e.g., planting more shade trees and choosing varieties and species that are well adapted to the climate of the urban environment.

This is a good example of how ICT can enhance citizen science, a particularly promising flavor of public participation consistent with good government principles. Smartphones, while sometimes available, are not widely affordable in developing countries, and in many places, the data networks to support them are not in place. There are however ways to use SMS, which is widely available, for citizen observations. Any good examples of environmental monitoring using SMS would be welcome!

March 10, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cross Cutting, Environment, Environment, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Policy Development

Informatics, intellectual property and indigenous communities

One barrier to the use of all-important traditional ecological knowledge in the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity is differing understanding of intellectual property. Just as people from the western legal tradition often make the mistake of interpreting apparently untenured land as terra nullius and available for appropriation (a justification for land claims by colonial powers), so too, patent laws have been used to lay claim to private rights on what had previously been a public good – a US patent on turmeric as a medicine for example. The differing approaches engender distrust, and impair cooperation on globally important issues.

I’m posting about this issue both as a cautionary tale about indigenous knowledge and informatics, and as one example of how ICT can be used to overcome barriers and promote cooperation.

A recent development aims to provide an interface between “source communities” and institutions that collect and manage data that can smooth the way towards the exchange and use of data. Mukurtu is an open source community archive platform that allows indigenous communities to manage their information and tag it. It began as a project of the Warumungu Aborigional community in central Australia. The platform is now being expanded to meet the needs of indigenous communities everywhere. As the Mukurtu archive explains:

Mukurtu is the Warumungu word for ‘dilly bag.’ Warumungu elders used to keep sacred items in dilly bags to ensure that they were kept safe. The elders were responsible for the safe keeping of the items as well as the knowledge that accompanied those items. Elders taught younger generations and opened the dilly bag when it was proper.

The Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari Archive is a ‘safe keeping place.’ The archive uses the cultural protocols of the Warumungu people to arrange, sort, and present content. Any piece of content that is not marked “open” (and thus viewable by the general public) is tagged with a set of restrictions. For example, Warumungu men and women can not view the same ritual materials. So any item restricted to women only would not be viewable by a male member of the community.

Mukurtu is potentially hugely important in protecting the integrity of sacred indigenous knowledge, making it available in appropriate ways while tagging it, in a way roughly analogous to a Creative Commons license, so that it can’t as easily be misappropriated. Mukurtu can help to improve ecoinformatics by making it more inclusive of cultural protocols. It also has potential as a tool for participatory planning by indigenous communities – especially those in a race for cultural preservation, like many Pacific island communities.

BBC interviewed Mukurtu founder Kimberly Christen in a podcast available here:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/digitalp/digitalp_20110222-1032a.mp3.

The interview begins around the 7:45 mark.

February 23, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environment, Environment, Environmental Compliance, Forestry, Land Management, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Water

A review of ICT for development: environment and natural resource management applications

Information and communications technology has a growing role in international development. Global connectivity through the Internet and through mobile phone technology is bringing people closer together to trade, share, and learn in a wide range of sectors, from agriculture, to manufacturing, financial services to water supply.

4In coming weeks and months, we will feature innovations in ICT for environmental protection and the sustainable use of natural resources in these pages. Today we will begin with an overview of some of the different ways in which ICT can be used, and give a few examples of innovative products that we think can make a difference. Someday, we would like to have an exhaustive survey of tools. Those of you who are reading this are almost certainly already familiar with the topic. If that’s the case, you’ll know the power of social networking. Let’s do a little social networking of our own and share ideas about ICT for natural resources – either innovations that you feel the world should know more about, or ideas that you have for innovations that should be brought to the attention of technology community.

ICT can make a difference in natural resource management in several ways. A major contribution the improvement of information used for decision making and access to that information. The science of data management is called informatics, and sometimes when the term is used for environmental sciences, it is called ecoinformatics. A key to good data management is interoperability. To better understand trends and causal relationships, it is necessary to combine data from different sources. Doing this requires the development of standards and protocols for describing phenomena, as well as quality control to ensure that the knowledge that results is based on facts. We will review ecoinformatics in more detail in later posts; for now, have a look at Data Basin, a fantastic tool for curating data that can be located in space and time using maps. Data Basin provides a way to host and manipulate data sets to create knowledge – to tell a story based upon observations. But it goes further – it includes a reputation system for ranking data sets, and social networking tools to bring data users together to interpret, critique, and collaborate in the development of knowledge products.

Of course, information is not very useful if it is not accessible. And access to reliable information has long been a barrier to effective decision-making in many parts of the world. This is changing. Not only is direct access to the Internet expanding, but mobile smartphones can be used in many parts of the world to send and receive data. An exciting development is the use of mobile applications, or “apps”, to address specific needs. For example, the World Bank DataFinder app can be used to quickly access economic data from the World Bank’s own data servers. (Unfortunately, the first version is exclusively written for the iPhone, a device not readily available in much of the developing world.) Mapping apps are proliferating, allowing access to topographic and thematic maps. And farmers can use apps to learn the price of, and even sell, their commodities. The World Bank is also sponsoring an Apps for Development competition to find new uses for World Bank data recently made publicly available. Unfortunately, many of the submissions deal with global policy issues and there are few practical tools for natural resource management, agriculture, health, and other pressing development issues on the ground. This will change once a demand from the field emerges, and we find better ways to link application developers with development and natural resource management practitioners. In 2009 USAID sponsored a competition, Development 2.0 through NetSquared, a technology service for social benefit organizations sponsored by Techsoup Global, a non-profit organization that helps NGOs to access donations of hardware, software, and training from the ICT industry. Innovative partnerships such as USAID’s collaborations with NetSquared and NetHope. NetHope is a partnership of technology providers and humanitarian organizations working to solve technology challenges. NetHope is a Global Broadband Innovations Initiative partner.

The ability to remotely sense and monitor natural resources is an important new tool for scientists and managers. In future weeks we will explore how ICT is being used to monitor global change, monitor biodiversity in the tropical forest canopy, monitor coral reefs, track the chain of custody of logs harvested in West African rainforests, and detect forest fires in Central America. ICT has the potential to help identify potential links between a changing climate and disease outbreaks, forest and agricultural pests and food prices.

ICT can have significant affects where time lags are a barrier to achieving goals. For example, early responses to emergencies such as forest fires or pest/disease/invasive species outbreaks are much more cost effective and more likely to be successful than late responses. It can also make a difference when markets are involved. For example, carbon credit monitoring can be made much for efficient, and importantly, the confidence in the effectiveness of the investment can increase when time lags concerning data about the status and extent of the resource can be eliminated. Note how the artificial boundaries created by thinking in terms of “sectors” such as agriculture, environment, and health, can blur when using data in innovative ways made possible through ICT tools.

ICT can also empower communities by enabling them to collect their own data, making it possible to overcome barriers to effective participation due to nonexistent or inaccessible information, and lessen their dependence upon often inaccessible outside experts. Using ICT communities can monitor resource use, integrate traditional ecological knowledge with scientific data, and participate as full partners in decision-making processes. A participatory Geographic Information Systems (computer mapping) community already exists, and an international grassroots mapping network is sharing progress using low-cost tools such as digital cameras and kites or helium balloons to create highly detailed area maps.

We will also review some yet unmet needs that ICT can fulfill, such as:

Real-time access to information to help port inspectors to identify pests while performing their duties (e.g., warehouses, docks)
Access to keys to help parataxonomists working to identify specimens of rare or harmful species
Remote upload of information from field observations and query of decision support tools that can be used in a dynamic situation like a disaster response.
Information on spot markets for natural resource products and for reservations and logistics for remote tourism facilities such as ecotourism operations, often associated with parks and protected areas.

Some additional considerations involve the possibility of social barriers to the use of ICT. For example, women and men may have different access to ICT, as well as different needs and different ways of approaching its use. Frequently, access to tools and equipment by women remains problematic even when ICT is available to the community. We will look for examples of how use patterns, specific needs, and cultural contexts are being used to maximize women’s participation in technology transfer. More technology-savvy youth may dominate ICT, limiting its use by elders and thereby failing to access important historical knowledge and perspectives. As with gender, care should be taken in introducing technologies to ensure that its use doesn’t promote inequality or skew the generation of knowledge.

Here are some tools for natural resource management that we will look at in more depth.

1) GPS. Global Positioning System. Used for recording location, useful for georeferencing data entry and producing maps. Often integrated into cameras and smartphones. Geotagging photographs links a visual record to an observation.

2) GIS. Geographic Information System. Manipulates georeferenced data in “map layers” to permit overlaying and comparing different types of information. GIS can integrate georeferenced field observations (e.g., from GPS) with remotely sensed images from satellites and aircraft, and digitized maps of terrain, landcover, infrastructure, demography, etc. Extremely complex to use and expensive in commercial versions; open source GIS is growing rapidly to overcome barriers to entry by communities, small businesses and local government. The discipline of participatory GIS (PGIS) focuses on making tools and techniques available to communities for natural resource planning. The PGIS community provides peer to peer technical assistance through a web site and email list.

3. Telecommunications. Voice, text (SMS) messaging, and other data transmitted over handheld devices used in natural resource management for managing, monitoring and reporting.

4. Remote sensing. Some satellite remote sensing data has been made freely available and is accessible providing the technology is in place to receive and process it. Other data, primarily from high resolution commercial instruments, can be extremely expensive. Efforts to overcome these barriers include:

Terralook, a service developed by NASA and provided by USGS includes georectified LANDSAT and ASTER images as high resolution JPEG compressed images. Terralook provides a free opensource viewer that allows users to do basic measurements, annotations, and classifications of the images.

Several projects have supported the development of a hybrid GPS and camera system that can be mounted on fixed and rotary winged aircraft for mapping along transects, with software to connect tiles to provide a large-scale georeferenced image that can be used with GIS systems (high resolution cameras have been able to capture images as small as 5 cm at 1500′ elevation).

Automated remote monitoring. An early example of the use of ICT for natural resource management was the US Forest Service’s Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) deployed throughout western forests in the US to monitor fire weather. Advances in technology now make it possible to create environmental sensor networks using high-tech miniature robots to record minute changes in the environment and transmitting the data to computers through telecommunications networks or satellite uplinks. In the USA, a consortium of research institutions has created a National Ecological Observatory Network to monitor environmental impacts and changes. With the costs declining, these tools will soon be within reach of developing countries, to monitor critical watersheds, environmental impacts of extractive industries, and the habitats of rare and endangered species.

Technology transfer is an important tool for achieving global goals for economic development, biodiversity conservation, and the protection of ecosystem services. It can help to advance effective governance and rule of law through a more informed, mobilized public and better monitoring of resource use to ensure that it is lawful as well as sustainable. As a package, better governance and better information will provide an improved chance to lift the rural poor of the world out of poverty.

February 13, 2011/by actualize

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