Koalisi Peduli Hutan Aceh is a network of indigenous community activists in Aceh province, at the far western end of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Around 4.7 million people live in the Aceh forest, depending on it for clean water, food, and protection from flooding and drought.
KPHA members are using smartphones to crowdsource data on the health of the forest.
In collaboration with a Washington, D.C.– and London-based group called the Environmental Investigation Agency, KPHA developed smartphone apps that let members collect their observations, geotag the information, and transmit it to a website for near real time mapping and display alongside other data, such as the boundaries of protected areas.
This video and excerpt from a news article are courtesy of takepart.com and can be read in its entirety here.