An app developed by the Kenya Forest Service combines satellite feeds with real-time global mapping to identify environmental issues such as forest fires and illegal logging.
250 locals who were forced to close their retail businesses during the pandemic are also being employed to replant trees.
This project has the joint benefit of creating jobs for young people and tackling the problem of deforestation.
Standing under a thick green canopy in coastal Kenya s Shim Hills, Mohamed Mwaramuno squints at his fellow forest ranger s smartphone.
With about a dozen rangers, he has been using an app that through satellite feeds maps signs of forest fires, illegal logging and people encroaching on water sources, to stem worsening deforestation in Kwale County during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Locals hired to patrol forests and replant trees Forest covers 7% of Kenya, which is aiming for 10% by 2022
By Kagondu Njagi
KWALE, Kenya, April 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - S tanding under a thick green canopy in coastal Kenya s Shim Hills, Mohamed Mwaramuno squints at his fellow forest ranger s smartphone.
With about a dozen rangers, he has been using an app that through satellite feeds maps signs of forest fires, illegal logging and people encroaching on water sources, to stem worsening deforestation in Kwale County during the COVID-19 pandemic. The app has made work easier for us, said Mwaramuno. Instead of patrolling the dangerous terrain we just receive these feeds and then we can directly go to the sites that have been disturbed.
7 Min Read
KWALE, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Standing under a thick green canopy in coastal Kenya’s Shim Hills, Mohamed Mwaramuno squints at his fellow forest ranger’s smartphone.
With about a dozen rangers, he has been using an app that through satellite feeds maps signs of forest fires, illegal logging and people encroaching on water sources, to stem worsening deforestation in Kwale County during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The app has made work easier for us,” said Mwaramuno. “Instead of patrolling the dangerous terrain we just receive these feeds and then we can directly go to the sites that have been disturbed.”