Smart Forests Radio

Jorge Saavedra: Monitoreando y combatiendo incendios forestales desde la teledetección

En este episodio de Smart Forests Radio, hablamos con Jorge Saavedra. Jorge es Ingeniero Forestal, Diplomado en Geomática y Tecnología Satelital, Magíster en Teledetección y Jefe del Departamento de Desarrollo e Investigación en Incendios Forestales en la Corporación Nacional Forestal de Chile (CONAF). Jorge cuenta con más de 15 años ligado al Manejo del Fuego, se especializa en áreas como el análisis y planificación, uso de geotecnologías, formación, investigación y desarrollo, evaluación y análisis de riesgo, cuantificación del daño evitado en incendios forestales, abarcando cargos desde brigadista hasta técnico en aviones de detección. También, es profesor adjunto en cursos de pre y postgrado en la Universidad Mayor de Chile. En esta entrevista nos cuenta sobre el rol del Departamento de Desarrollo e Investigación de CONAF, que ha sido analizar de manera transversal a toda la institución para hacer más eficiente el trabajo y entender el por qué del comportamiento del fuego en el territorio chileno. Para esto, han generado diversas herramientas que permiten el monitoreo y prevención a incendios forestales, como el Sistema de Pronóstico, el Mapa de Riesgo Nacional y el Botón Rojo. Puede encontrar más sobre el trabajo de Jorge en https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jorge-Saavedra-15.
Entrevistadora: Pablo González Rivas, Paula Tiara Torres and Jennifer Gabrys
Productor: Harry Murdoch
Imagen: Jorge Saavedra

Shefali Lakhina: Innovating FireTech with Frontline Communities

In this episode of Smart Forests Radio, we talk with Dr Shefali Juneja Lakhina about socially led innovations in fire technology and policy. Shefali is the co-founder of Wonder Labs, a climate justice-focused social enterprise based in California. Since 2021, as part of Wonder Labs’ flagship initiative—the Reimagining 2025: Living with Fire Design Challenge—Shefali has mentored student teams in conducting convergence research with community partners working to reduce catastrophic wildfire impacts in caring, equitable, and just ways. In the interview, Shefali shares insights from Wonder Labs’ State of FireTech Report, emphasising the importance of focusing on “fires that matter” and shifting away from early detection and suppression towards mitigation. She discusses how technology can help different communities prepare to live and work with fire in their unique contexts, providing examples such as BurnBot, a fuel treatment system for prescribed burns, and FireUp, a fire forestry workforce platform.
Interviewer: Jennifer Gabrys
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Image: FireUp

Frank Vorhies: Integrating Conservation and Economic Development

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we speak with Dr Frank Vorhies. Frank is the director of African Wildlife Economy Institute at Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the founding director of Earthmind, a conversation network founded in Switzerland and now based in the UK. He explores the economic aspects of conservation initatives, focusing on how different views of conservation and biodiversity influence contributing activities and quantification methods. Advocating for conservation as sustainable use of natural resources, as opposed to strict protection, Frank discusses integrating conservation with industrial and urban development and emphasises the need to measure use-related indicators alongside protection-related ones. He delves into how the concept of Verified Conservation Areas (VCA) for biodiveristy restoration came about, making an area unit measurable, tradable, and investable. He also highlights how shifting from a carbon-focused approach to an area-based approach, like VCA, combined with a digital platform, can facilitate sustainable practices and enable transparent information sharing among various actors, including gas factories.
Interviewer: Michelle Westerlaken
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Image: Frank Vorhies, Earthmind

Arthur Eijs: Verified Conservation Areas and the Nature Commitment Platform

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we invite Arthur Eijs, a policy advisor on Natural Resources at the Ministry for Infrastructure & Water Management in the Netherlands. Formerly, he oversaw strategy, pilot projects, and economic incentives on biodiversity at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, and served as a member of the Dutch CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) delegation.
During the interview, conducted in June 2023, Arthur delves into a biodiversity project he initiated about Verified Conservation Areas, or the VCA platform. This digital infrastructure aimed to transparently verify biodiversity restoration and conservation efforts, enabling both larger companies and local grassroots initiatives to declare their contributions. Arthur elaborates on his ideas behind this initiative and the challenges encountered in securing funding. He also shares fascinating insights into the background of European funding strategies for biodiversity and the issues arising from the multitude of emerging digital platforms and stakeholders. Although the VCA platform is currently discontinued, information about the projects involved can be found via the website of the Convention on Biological Diversity on their new Nature Commitments Platform.
Interviewer: Michelle Westerlaken
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Language note: This interview takes place in Dutch.
Image: Nature Commitments, https://naturecommitments.org/

Awana Digital: Weaving Community, Technology and Environment

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we speak with Jen Castro, co-director of Awana Digital (formerly Digital Democracy), about Mapeo, an open-source, offline-first toolset for forest monitoring and territory mapping. Jen discusses how Mapeo supports participatory data collection and sharing, reinforcing community sovereignty over their land and data. She also describes Mapeo’s transformative role in combating illegal mining, deforestation, and other threats to forests by facilitating evidence gathering, campaign launches, and policy changes. As Mapeo expands into a broader network of communities, tools, and data, Jen shares the vision for it to become self-sustaining and co-developed through peer learning. Towards the end of the episode, Jen explains how the organisation’s name change to Awana Digital (Awana means ‘to weave’ in Quechua) reflects its role of co-designing tools with frontline communities to protect human and environmental rights.
Interviewer: Jennifer Gabrys
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Image: Mapeo, https://docs.mapeo.app/

Michiel van Bakel: Visual Artist in Forest Landscapes

In this episode of Smart Forests Radio, we venture into the forest on the Peelrandbreuk in Boekel, the Netherlands. Recorded during a forest walk on a warm summer day in June 2023, the episode features visual artist Michiel van Bakel and ecovillage founder Ad Vlems. The Peelrandbreuk, a geological fault line, is clearly visible in the landscape due to variations in elevation. During our walk, we had intriguing conversations around the local area and van Bakel’s interactive artworks.
Michiel van Bakel studied astronomy, photography, psychology, and visual arts. He expresses himself through video, sculptures, and installations, conveying a fascination with the tension between humans and technology, as well as the perception of time within our disrupted ecosystems. Working with tools such as cameras, scanners, and image processing algorithms, he aims to extend his senses and visualises things that were previously unseen. For more on his work, see: https://www.michielvanbakel.nl/.
Interviewer: Michelle Westerlaken
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Language note: This interview takes place in Dutch.
Image: Michiel van Bakel

Increasing the Survivability of Adopted Trees through Datafication

In this episode of Smart Forest Radio, we speak with Sandyakala Ning Tyas from the Mountain and Jungle Explorer Association Foundation (Wanadri) in Indonesia. Sandyakala shares insights from the development of their Tree Guardian program, launched in 1998 to combat deforestation in an area exceeding 1000 hectares in West Java. In 2008, the programme began using digital technology to improve the survivability of adopted trees. It has since expanded to include mangrove adoption and animal and forest protection.
Interviewer: Yuti Ariani Fatimah
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Language note: The interview takes place in Indonesian.
Image: Wanadri Foundation

Rob Lewis: Tokenising Forests to Improve Biodiversity

In this episode of the Smart Forests Radio, we speak with Rob Lewis, an ecologist at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) in Bergen, Norway. Our conversation focuses on Forest-Web-3.0, a collaborative project aimed at incentivising biodiversity data sharing and pro-forestation practices, thereby improving forest biodiversity. Rob discusses the potential of blockchain technologies for open and fairer data governance by ensuring transparency and control of data flows in open and decentralised networks. Moreover, through the tokenisation of biodiversity credits, this system has the potential to financially reward forest landowners for preservation efforts, helping to move them away from revenue sources reliant on resource extraction.
Interviewers: Jennifer Gabrys and Michelle Westerlaken
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Image: Forest-Web-3.0, https://www.forestweb3.com/

The Bujang Raba Carbon Project

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

Fleur Bokma: Stichting Deltaplan Biodiversiteitsherstel

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