Phones in the canopy that hear chainsaws
“An extremely powerful tool for the protection of rainforests.”
— Vasco M. van Roosmalen, Equipe de Conservação da Amazônia
The problem Vasco M. van Roosmalen faced
Illegal loggers work at night in remote rainforest. Satellites show the damage days or weeks later — by then the trees are gone and the loggers are gone. Rangers can't be everywhere, and they find out too late.
What the project does about it
Old phones hung high in the trees, solar powered, listening around the clock. AI trained on chainsaw recordings picks the two-stroke engine sound out of rain, insects, and animal noise. When it hears one, it sends rangers the location in real time. Satellites tell you what happened. This tells you while it's happening.
Who this helped
Vasco M. van Roosmalen, Equipe de Conservação da Amazônia — in their own words, above.