Smart Forests Radio Smart Forests

In this episode of Smart Forest Radio, we invite Emmy Primadona and Famila Juniarti from the Indonesian Conservation Community Warsi to discuss the implementation of carbon funds in the landscape of Bukit Panjang Rantau Bayur, commonly abbreviated as Bujang Raba, located in the Bungo regency, Jambi province. Emmy discusses how she assures the community that the funding that comes from the carbon project does not mean they are selling their forests but rather demonstrates how the international community values community conservation efforts.
Interviewer: Yuti Ariani Fatimah
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Language note: This interview takes place in Indonesian.
Image: Yuti Fatimah

Within the Netherlands, there are a lot of widely contrasting ideas about biodiversity. The ‘Stichting Deltaplan Biodiversiteitsherstel’ is a foundation that connects parties, including biodiversity organisations, politics, farmers, and local initiatives, together to create plans for biodiversity restoration. Fleur Bokma worked as a biodiversity advisor for this project. In this interview, she discusses the use of indicators, the challenges of measuring and monitoring these indicators, and how to work collectively with organisations that have different interests and ambitions concerning biodiversity. She discusses how digital infrastructures potentially bring diverging perspectives on biodiversity closer together because they can help to create more collective ambitions. The website 'Samen voor Biodiversiteit', provides an overview of all the initiatives and partners involved. It’s a great resource for understanding the diverse ongoing local and national biodiversity projects that are taking place in the Netherlands.
Interviewer: Michelle Westerlaken
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Language note: This interview takes place in Dutch.
Image: Samen voor Biodiversiteit, https://www.samenvoorbiodiversiteit.nl/projecten

In this Smart Forest Radio episode, we invite Benita Nathania, Mirzha Hanifah (Hani), and Hidayah (Iday) Hamzah from the World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia to discuss the use of Global Forest Watch (GFW), an online platform for near real-time forest monitoring in Indonesia. Benita, Hani, and Iday talk about the challenges of utilising GFW in Indonesia. They especially consider complexities related to the diversity of forest definitions and the importance of understanding methodology in interpreting data.
Interviewer: Yuti Ariani Fatimah
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Language note: This interview takes place in Indonesian.
For more on Global Forest Watch, head to Smart Forests Atlas
Image: Nathania et al. (2022), https://wri-indonesia.org/id/publikasi/metode-prioritisasi-peringatan-terkini-perubahan-tutupan-pohon-glad-alert-untuk-berbagai

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we speak with Pranav Menon, a PhD researcher in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, about the politics surrounding forest-dwelling communities, forest commons, and digital technologies in India. Pranav focuses on his engagement with the Van Gujjars, a pastoral community experiencing discrimination, on forest claims made through bottom-up mapping practices. Through ethnographic research combined with a handheld GPS eTrex device, he explores ways to generate different imaginations of forest space rooted in pastoralists’ language and life, which can challenge the state’s hierarchisation of land and people. Despite their insurgent possibilities, Pranav also notes that technologies such as GIS might impact the way the pastoral communities perceive and use space, potentially undermining their traditional way of living.

Interviewers: Trishant Simlai and Kate Lewis Hood
Producer: Harry Murdoch

Image: Pranav Menon

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we are in conversation with Ignacio Barbeito, an Assistant Professor of Silviculture in the Department of Forest Resources Management, at the University of British Columbia. Ignacio discusses how the Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) approach is transforming forest research practices. He highlights that technologies like tomography, lidar, GIS, and drones are enabling unprecedented ways of seeing forests, providing data such as heartbeat-like growth patterns of trees. As revolutionary as they are, Ignacio also notes that these technologies may blind us with an overwhelming amount of data and incomprehensibly high resolution.
Interviewers: Jennifer Gabrys and Max Ritts
Producer: Harry Murdoch
For more on Clmate-Smart Forestry, head to Smart Forests Atlas
Image: Kamil Kędra and Ignacio Barbeito (2022), https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41064-022-00201-3

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we speak with Tom Bewick, former Peru director at Rainforest Foundation US and currently an international project specialist at Nature4Climate. The conversation focuses on the Rainforest Alert, a community forest monitoring system in the Peruvian Amazon that Tom co-developed during his time at the Rainforest Foundation. The Rainforest Alert integrates smartphone technologies, open data deforestation alerts like Global Forest Watch, offline GIS, drones, and satellite imageries to support Indigenous-led monitoring and protection of their territories. Tom discusses how Indigenous communities use the system for their monthly patrols—detecting deforestation activities, patrolling sites, recording evidence, and collectively deciding on a course of action. He also comments on the implications of such a real-time alert system for the intervention process, governance structure, and data ownership.
Interviewers: Kate Lewis Hood and Jennifer Gabrys
Producer: Harry Murdoch
For more on Rainforest Alert, head to Smart Forests Atlas
Image: Rainforest Foundation US, https://rainforestfoundation.org