Alto Mayo Protected Forest Monitoring System The Alto Mayo Protected Forest (AMPF) forms part of an important biodiversity conservation corridor with an incredible number of endemic plant and animal species of global importance. It is also one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world.
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Near Real-Time Forest Monitoring System
Remote Data Collection
21 DELIVERY
Overview
Conservation International, Management Systems International and Virginia Tech are developing a near real-time Forest Monitoring System using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and compact environmental sensors to detect deforestation and forest degradation as well as human settlements to enable more effective intervention by park management. Lightweight, durable sensors will collect acoustic and other environmental information needed to identify deforestation activities as well as capture biodiversity vocalization to assist the mapping of key species occurrence and habitat monitoring. The UAV will capture multispectral data to map trails and measure biomass and forest cover along with capturing thermal data during night flights to map human settlements.
At predetermined points along the flight path the UAV deploys lightweight environmental sensors and catalogues their locations. The sensors float down to the tree canopy where they catch and hang above the forest floor collecting environmental data: sounds, temperature, air quality, moisture, etc.
Deploy
Sensor
1 LAUNCH In a clearing the portable UAV is unpacked, assembled, geo-referenced (i.e. the coordinates of the start point are input into the UAV’s navigation system) and launched by a trained park ranger on its preprogrammed flight path over the forest.
Flight path
Forest Ranger
Plantation
November 6, 2014
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REMOTE SENSING
REMOTE SENSING
The UAV will be operated and maintained by park rangers and equipped with low-cost, off-the-shelf photogrammetry and remote sensing equipment to provide spatial, spectral and temporal images of the forest below in order to map man-made trails, biomass and forest cover as well as human settlements more cost-effectively and frequently than satellite or manned airborne platforms.
The UAV’s preprogrammed flight path includes flying over deployed environmental sensors. When in range the sensor transmits collected data to the UAV. If multiple sensors are deployed, their communication can be linked to allow one sensor to transmit data collected by the sensor network.
Forest image collection
Environmental data collection
Impact and Performance Measurement Using data collected remotely by aerial and environmental sensors across sections of the protected forest, park rangers will have information needed to conduct more effective, targeted interventions at deforestation sources, such as selective logging sites and illegal settlements. Indicators for measuring the proposed Forest Monitoring System’s performance include but are not limited to area monitored and interventions per reporting cycle.
Sensor
15 LANDING
Data transfer
Deforestation
After landing safely at a preprogrammed forest clearing the UAV transfers its collected data to a forest ranger’s laptop or tablet before eventual transmission to a cloud-based database for analysis and visualization insupport of interventions that effectively utilize the limited resources available.
Forest Ranger
Despite the designation of the Alto Mayo forests as a Natural Protected Area, in 2005 the AMPF was ranked second in terms of cumulated deforestation among Peruvian protected areas (see Figure 01). Since then, the situation has improved with the implementation of the REDD project in 2008, which resulted in an increase in personnel capacity and amplification of patrolling and surveillance of the AMPF. Last year approximately 370 patrols were performed with an average of 2km covered per patrol. The total area patrolled was 23,000 ha, which represents only 12% of the total AMPF area. As a result of this intensification, the number of illegal environmental activities stopped (e.g. trafficking of flora and fauna, slash and burn clearing, settlement construction) increased from an average of 16 occurrences per year in 2008-2012 to 85 occurrences per year in 2012-2014. The rangers’ efforts increased forest protection as the average forest loss dropped from 340 ha/y in 2012 to 240 ha/y in 2014, however these numbers are still far from ideal. Conservation of the AMPF has improved in the last few years, as the main causes of deforestation are being addressed through expanded control and surveillance methods. However, due to the natural condition and size of the forest, the cost-effectiveness of these activities have reached their limits. The
Figure 1 – Historical deforestation in and near the AMPF Credit: Conservation International
use of new technologies to remotely patrol wider areas of the AMPF would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of deforestation prevention strategies. With this goal in mind Conservation International (CI), with help from Management Systems International (MSI) and Virginia Tech (VT), has designed a Forest Monitoring System based on existing and proven UAV and sensor technologies that will enable AMPF rangers to vastly extend their patrolled areas in order to measurably reduce annual deforestation to zero.
For more than 25 years, Conservation International has been protecting nature for the benefit of everyone on Earth. CI is​900 people in 30+ countries helping to build a healthier, more prosperous and more productive planet, for you and for everyone.
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Management Systems International (MSI) is an international development consulting firm based in the Washington, D.C. area. It was founded in 1981 by Marina Fanning and Larry Cooley. For the last 30 years, MSI has helped to deliver development results across the developing world.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, better known as Virginia Tech, is a public land-grant university with a main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, educational facilities in six regions statewide, and a study-abroad site in Switzerland. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.