The Smart Forests project includes five case studies in
Chile
,
Indonesia
, the
Netherlands
,
India
, and
Scotland
, co-created with local communities through field schools and workshops.
In Scotland, we investigated community-oriented
temperate rainforest
regeneration
projects facilitated by
drones
and
geospatial
technologies and involving wider
networks
and partnerships.
This case study reveals that while smart forest technologies can strengthen networks and extend capacity, they remain a means to an end.
Community participation
and integrated visions of
rainforest
and community life proved most fundamental to sustainable regeneration. Whereas open-access tools and platforms support
community knowledge
and imaginaries, remotely operated
monitoring
technologies risk curtailing local decision-making on landscape-scale change, disempowering rural populations.
The Rainforest Regeneration in Scotland: Communities and Technologies film, presented below, explores how
digital technologies
are facilitating temperate rainforest regeneration in four community-led projects on the West Coast of Scotland.
You can explore additional resources about the Scotland case study on the Map.