Almost everything today is being reinvented and the same can be said about recycling. Recycling has evolved into Upcycling, which is converting waste into better things more often than not for better environmental value. Born from this new technology is a new tool fighting on the front lines to protect initially some of Africa's most endangered rainforests and eventually the worlds.
Rainforest Connection (RFCx) is a tech startup using that is aware of the importance of mobile technology to monitor and protect remote forests in real-time to protect endangered rainforests amongst others in Africa and Brazil. RFCx has teamed up with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) aiming to install their effective technology in Cameroon this year to stop illegal logging and poaching.
Addressing the loopholes in the current monitoring system which relies on aerial surveys or satellite surveillance, which usually detect logging days or even weeks after the event.
RFCx has developed the the most effective real-time solution so far addressing deforestation and other forms of illegal logging using discarded Android smartphones to send alerts of rainforest destruction to those responsible, giving them a realistic time window to actually intervene.
The RFCx system which was first successfully tested last year aimed at illegal loggers in Western Sumatra, Indonesia, proving the efficacy of the technology has now raised over $US 125,000 using crowdfunding website Kickstarter.The key to RFCx's success has been them figuring out how to design a solar-panel which can generate sufficient power within a predominantly shadowed tree canopy. Attaching this technology to highly-sensitive microphones, each mobile device can protect one square mile of rainforest which in most cases is home to over a thousand species of plants and animals.
Topher White, RFCx founder, believes that all the right tools have come to fruition at just the right moment to make difference. "It's clear that real-time awareness and intervention is a major missing piece in protecting the world's last remaining rainforests. By using old smartphones and existing telecommunications infrastructure, we have built a system that should scale quickly enough to make an impact."
Chris Ransom, Programme Manager for ZSL in Africa, said: "We think this could be a critical new tool for protecting large areas of rainforest. We're excited to deploy it this year in collaboration with our local partners in Africa."
Randy Hayes, Founder of Rainforest Action Network, Executive Director of Foundation Earth and a thirty-year veteran of rainforest conservation efforts, said of RFCx technology, "This is the most exciting critical new tool that I've seen that I think can help us get the job done."
Dave Grenell, RFCx co-founder, said, "We are experiencing one of the highest rates of species extinction since the time of the dinosaurs. Future generations will look back on this as a kind of holocaust. Protecting endangered forests is one of the most important things we can do today to help."
"This is the first step to changing the world. There should be more eco-friendly technologies that do more for nature," Manna Kanuga, eco-activist
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}