Satellites are being used today to capture images of illegal logging activities in rainforests. However, by the time they detect it, the trees have been cut down already and distributed to the world market. So an engineer thought of a way to easily capture illegal logging and poaching activities inside rainforests using old cellphones.

Topher White is an American engineer who thought of recycling old cellphones and turn them into tracking devices that could detect chainsaw sounds and send them to the headquarters to alert forest rangers and capture illegal loggers on the act.

He was inspired by this idea after visiting a rainforest in Indonesia wherein only animal sounds are being heard but the destruction from within continues. A year later, he came back to test his invention that successfully detected illegal loggers within 48 hours of testing it.

Recycled, Solar-Powered Cellphones to the Rescue

Under his Rainforest Connection non-profit organization, White was able to use his forest-monitoring technology, dubbed as "Forest Guardians," which started in 2012 as an idea of using old cellphones and recycling them into making them solar-powered cellphones that detect sounds.

White tested the Forest Guardians in Sumatra, Indonesia where they listened to the sounds of the rainforest. It is connected to existing cellphone networks that will send mobile alerts to rangers in the field when illegal logging and poaching activities are detected.

Today, Rainforest Connection (RFCx) has produced inexpensive yet highly effective technology and installed it in 17 countries across five continents.

According to Wired, these listening devices are strategically placed in areas vulnerable to illegal logging and poaching. Newer versions of the device are based on custom logic boards but cellphones are still used in some places.

"They capture all the sounds from the rainforest and stream it up to the cloud where our software runs on it with a few different types of AI to pick out all sorts of things, so chainsaws, logging trucks, people, gunshots," explained White. "And then we can send real-time alerts over the cell phone network to locals on the ground."

Historically, illegal logging prevention efforts rely mostly on rangers walking through forests looking for signs of illegal activity. However, this method is extremely time-consuming and could easily be detected by illegal loggers because these walks are often planned.

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Widening Scope of Forest Protection

The innovation of White through the Rainforest Connection is indeed remarkable. The Forest Guardians were able to help rangers capture two members of illegal logging groups that have been destroying the rainforest in Indonesia. 

After its successful Kickstarter campaign, The Hill reported that the non-profit organization has now over a $1 million budget from the contributions of philanthropy and companies like Google, Huawei, and Hitachi. 

But there are more to improve with the device and the Rainforest Connection is already working on that. They are furnishing a cloud-based database of animal sounds so the government and scientists could document and track rare wildlife.


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