Community-led Forest Technologies: A Smart Forests Interim Report

The Smart Forests interim report primarily discusses the stories of four case-study communities engaging with various digital forest technologies in Chile, Indonesia, the Netherlands, and India. It also draws on surveys of community-led forest technologies and relevant literature.

Five key findings emerged from research with these communities:

1. Smart forest technologies are changing forest engagements and livelihoods

Forest technologies can provide livelihoods and offer ways for communities to care for and protect their forest lands. This can be seen in Bujang Raba in Indonesia , where communities have been protecting diverse tropical rainforests through a carbon monitoring scheme. At the same time, these devices can convert forests primarily into carbon stores, rather than more complex social-cultural milieus.

Indeed, the report considers how digital technologies impact community ways of seeing and inhabiting forest worlds. Remote observation tools can reinforce dominant views of forests and how they should be identified and valued. Likewise, species monitoring devices may better detect some species over others, leading to an inevitable prioritisation. Smart forest technologies’ distinct ways of seeing and sensing can obscure pluralistic, local and Indigenous understandings of forest processes if not carefully designed and deployed.

2. Smart forest technologies are unevenly distributed, and resources are often scarce

Uneven distributions of technologies and resources can create or perpetuate inequalities within and between communities. The report describes how, when only a select few forest communities are given the tools and assistance to identify and monitor illegal deforestation , illicit logging activities can be displaced into surrounding forest areas where other communities cannot access the same resources.

3. Smart forest technologies are transforming forest governance

As digital technologies proliferate in forests worldwide, environmental governance has shifted. In recent years, startups, private finance and technology sectors, including ' Big Tech ', have become increasingly involved or interested in environmental monitoring and management. This can be seen in WhatsApp delivering fire warnings to communities, or AI-driven geospatial tools for monitoring deforestation.

Power and resource dynamics are at play when governments rely on private corporations to build and grant access to digital infrastructures . Similarly, emergency and public services can become dependent on private technology infrastructures that might not be adequately accessible or continuous during critical events. 

4. Smart forest technologies are shifting power dynamics between communities, states, and technology companies

Digital technologies can alter or intensify existing power dynamics between states, technologists, NGOs and communities. Notably, wildlife monitoring devices, such as drones and camera traps , can operate as tools for state surveillance of forest communities. For example, in Uttarakhand, India , the state deploys digital devices to surveil and intimidate Van Gujjar communities, some of whom have been forcibly removed from their traditional lands. Conversely, these technologies can empower communities to make land rights claims. In Uttarakhand, Van Gujjars have used drones, paper mapping and GPS devices tied to their buffalos’ horns to map their territories and submit territorial claims using the Forest Rights Act.

5. Smart forest technologies can strengthen and enable forest networks

Digital technologies can help develop crucial national and international forest networks. Technologies and platforms can enable communities to share culture, stories, education, and exchange information on topics such as ecology or fire prevention techniques.

After outlining the social and political impacts of digital forest technologies, our interim report draws together a series of proposals for how these technologies can create more just and thriving worlds. These strategies seek to ensure diverse, community-led approaches to forest technologies can be effectively designed, implemented and supported.

To access the report and read the stories, findings, proposals and forest worlds, visit: https://publications.smartforests.net/community-led-forest-technologies.