Community-led Forest Technologies: A Smart Forests Interim Report

Abstract

‘Smart’ digital technologies are increasingly being deployed to manage, monitor and transform forest environments globally. This technologization is occurring in a context where forests are seen as tools to meet environmental targets (namely carbon and biodiversity targets) and deliver other ecosystem services. The Smart Forests research project studies how the emerging technologies of camera traps, eco-acoustics, GPS and remote sensors are proliferating, and what their social-political impacts are or could be. We scan related literature and ask how technologies are used by, with and against forest communities. We then home in on four stories of community engagements with forest technologies from our case study research in Chile, Indonesia, the Netherlands and India. We trace shifts in governance and networks; alterations in the power dynamics between communities, states and technology companies; changes in how forests are sensed and known; and discrepancies in how technologies are distributed within and between communities. These findings lead us to propose strategies to ensure diverse community-led approaches to forest technologies can be effectively designed, implemented and supported. We seek to enable communities, publics, policymakers, industries and NGOs to better understand the social-political impacts of forest technologies as the users, regulators, funders and developers of these devices and infrastructure. We hope this research can contribute to creating just and thriving forest worlds in a time of far-reaching planetary change.