China News Service, February 18. According to a report by Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao on the 18th, large tracts of tropical rainforest in Indonesia are disappearing at an alarming rate under illegal logging.
However, Indonesia now has a new "weapon" against deforestation-sensors that monitor the sound of logging.
About a year ago, the American non-profit Rainforest Connection established a solar sensor system in the tropical rainforest of West Sumatra Province, Indonesia, using sensors and audio to detect the sound of illegal logging.
The organization uses the largest resource of the tropical rainforest-trees, hides smartphones and solar-powered panels in key monitoring areas, sends sound samples to the central cloud computing server through the mobile cellular network, and then analyzes the sound data to identify chainsaws and Trucks are waiting for sounds in and out of the rain forest.
White, the founder of the Rainforest Conservation Organization, said that when he volunteered to participate in a gibbon conservation project in Borneo 10 years ago, he developed this method of protecting forests through sound.
He said: "It is difficult to monitor people walking through the forest, but the sound can't escape, so it would be a good way to monitor forest activities through sound."
After White, who has an engineering background, spent a year developing a solar sensor system and immediately tested it in Indonesia.
With funding from some international technology giants such as Google and Huawei, the organization has installed this sensor system in tropical rainforests in Amazon, Peru, and the Philippines.
White said: "We are basically building a nervous system for the natural world." He hopes that in the next five to six years, the Rainforest Conservation Organization can install tens of thousands of sensors in tropical rainforests around the world.
Local inspectors in Sumatra said that since the installation of the sensor system, their monitoring and combating illegal logging have become easier.
A forest ranger Jasriati said: "Illegal logging has stopped, and those criminals dare not come here."
According to the “Global Forest Observation”, a dynamic online forest detection warning system, Indonesia has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. From 2002 to 2019, logging and “burning trees” caused about 10% of the rainforest to disappear.
However, in recent years, the rate of disappearance of the Indonesian rainforest has begun to slow down.
In addition to using technology to deal with illegal logging, Indonesian authorities have also stepped up law enforcement.