Smart Forests Radio

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we speak with Pranav Menon , a PhD researcher in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, about the politics surrounding forest-dwelling communities, forest commons, and digital technologies in India. Pranav focuses on his engagement with the Van Gujjars, a pastoral community experiencing discrimination, on forest claims made through botto...

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we are in conversation with Ignacio Barbeito , an Assistant Professor of Silviculture in the Department of Forest Resources Management, at the University of British Columbia. Ignacio discusses how the Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) approach is transforming forest research practices. He highlights that technologies like tomography, lidar, GIS, and drones are enabl...

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we speak with Tom Bewick, former Peru director at Rainforest Foundation US and currently an international project specialist at Nature4Climate . The conversation focuses on the Rainforest Alert, a community forest monitoring system in the Peruvian Amazon that Tom co-developed during his time at the Rainforest Foundation. The Rainforest Alert integrates smartpho...

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we are in conversation with tree-ring researcher Ute Sass Klaassen at Van Hall Larenstein and Wageningen University & Research, and multi-species geographer Clemens Driessen at Wageningen University & Research. Their research illustrates different more-than-human approaches to engaging with seemingly slower entities like trees and snails by using digita...

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we speak to Dr Douglas Clark, an associate professor at the School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan . Our conversation revolves around wildlife monitoring technologies and the collaborative process of knowledge production with Northern and Indigenous communities in Arctic Canada. Douglas elaborates on how technologies, when co...

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we interview Miranda Mesman and Ton de Nijs from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) . RIVM develops digital platforms like Atlas Natural Capital and Atlas Living Environment to aid green urban planning by quantifying the environmental and societal benefits of greening cities. During the interview, Miranda and Ton share the...

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we speak to Professor David Coomes, Director of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute (UCCRI). David uses computational technologies, from lidar to machine-learning algorithms, to estimate differences in carbon storage over time and across vast landscapes in response to environmental changes. Reflecting on his forest ecology research pract...

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we interview Martha Fellows, a researcher from the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) in Brazil. In close collaboration with Indigenous communities, IPAM has developed tools such as the forest monitoring platform SOMAI , which seeks to support Indigenous territories and populations in preserving the Indigenous Amazon. IPAM provides technologies as w...

In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we invite Kaitlyn Thayer and Gabrielle Nusbaum from the World Resources Institute (WRI) to speak about Global Forest Watch , an open-source platform for near real-time global forest monitoring. The platform is used by a wide array of different actors, including protected area managers, Indigenous communities, governments, corporations and journalists, to monito...

In this episode, we speak to Pujita Guha for the Forest Curriculum , a "collectively run itinerant anarchist platform for artistic, curatorial and political research and organisation." Pujita talks about the collaborative process of building a platform for conversations about forests, the nonhuman, and Indigenous knowledges in South and Southeast Asia. Other topics include the risks of digital tec...

In this radio episode, we speak to Patrick Ribeiro , founder of OpenForests , a technology company that develops digital tools such as the explorer.land platform for forest restoration initiatives. Patrick discusses how digital technologies – from drones to satellites to interactive maps – can facilitate data-led storytelling that builds transparency between on-the-ground restoration projects, sta...

In this episode, we speak to Brian House , a sound artist and Assistant Professor of Art at Amherst College. Brian discusses Macrophones , an ongoing project that records and processes atmospheric infrasound (sound with a frequency below the range of human hearing) to make it audible for listeners. The conversation touches on the role of art and technology in generating new environmental sensitivi...

In this episode, we speak to Joycelyn Longdon , a PhD researcher on the AI for the study of Environmental Risk programme at the University of Cambridge, and founder of Climate in Colour , an educational platform focused on climate science and social justice. Joycelyn discusses her interdisciplinary work creating machine learning algorithms and data visualisations of forest sound with a community l...

How do fire, forests, and landscape politics intersect? In this Smart Forests Radio episode, we speak with Border Agency , a research and art collective, about their latest exhibition at the Museo de La Solidaridad Salvador Allende in Santiago, Chile.  We discuss the role of eucalyptus plantations in reshaping the Chilean landscape, and consider the power dynamics involved in cultivating forests....

In this episode, we speak to Paul Roe , Professor of Computer Science at Queensland University of Technology. Along with academics from a range of Australian universities, Paul leads the Australian Acoustic Observatory (A2O), a network and infrastructure of acoustic sensors that continuously monitor different ecosystems across the continent. In this conversation, Paul discusses the Observatory's o...

In this radio episode, we speak to Hana Raza , a wildlife conservationist from Iraqi Kurdistan and founder of the newly-formed NGO Leopards Beyond Borders . While working with Nature Iraq, Raza and her team found evidence of the Persian leopard, which was presumed locally extinct in Iraqi Kurdistan. Leopards Beyond Borders aims to protect this important species and, more widely, to establish prote...

In this radio episode, we speak to T. Mitchell Aide , a tropical ecologist and former Professor of Biology at University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras. In this conversation, Mitch discusses the development of ARBIMON (Automated Remote Biodiversity Monitoring Network), an important early platform for storing and analysing eco-acoustic data, the different challenges of remote sensing and acoustics for...

In this episode, we speak to five people who have contributed to the ARISE project, a digital infrastructure that aims to identify and monitor all species in the Netherlands. These conversations took place at the ARISE day held at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in March 2022. We hear from: Elaine van Ommen Kloeke , ARISE's programme manager Jacob Kamminga , a computer science researcher special...

In this episode, we speak to Pratyush Mallick, developer of Forest Guardian , a DIY, open source device used to detect illegal logging in forest spaces. Pratyush discusses the potential of the DIY/hacking community for building technologies to address environmental change, and the politics of implementing these technologies on the ground in Indian forests. Interviewers: Michelle Westerlaken and Tr...

In this radio episode, we speak to Dr Andrea Leiter , Assistant Professor at the Amsterdam Center for International Law and Director of Research at the nonprofit Sovereign Nature Initiative . Andrea discusses how emerging cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies can offer different ways of understanding, valuing, and governing nature, along with some of the dangers of the fast-paced, growing wor...

In this radio episode, we speak to Dr Sarab Sethi , Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Cambridge Conservation Initiative at the University of Cambridge. Sarab discusses building hardware for acoustic soundscape monitoring in the SAFE project in Malaysian Borneo, and the challenges of interdisciplinary work between ecology and computer science. Interviewers: Jennifer Gabrys, Max Ritt...

In this episode, we speak to Shashank Srinivasan, founder of Technology for Wildlife Foundation based in Goa, India. Shashank discusses tools and technologies including drones, satellites, and geospatial mapping to amplify conservation work, while also remaining critical of the potential negative social and environmental impacts of technology. Interviewer: Trishant Simlai Producer: Harry Murdoch H...

In this episode, we speak to Alex Rogers , Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. We discuss how Alex's research team developed the acoustic recording device AudioMoth , how low-cost technologies can democratise biodiversity monitoring, and how sensing technologies can lead to certain species and environments being monitored more than others. Interviewers: Max Ritts and Michell...

In this radio episode, we speak to Sophie Nitoslawski , PhD candidate in urban forestry at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Sophie talks about the ecological and social importance of urban forests, public and private sector collaborations, and the need to think across multiple scales when designing and implementing smart forest technologies. Interviewers: Jennifer Gabrys and Max Ritts Pro...

In this radio episode, we speak to Dr Lindsey Rustad , Director of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Northeast Climate Hub and Team Leader for the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire. Lindsey discusses setting up the USDA Smart Forests network , different types of sensors used for real-time environmental monitoring, and the role of forest ecosystems in addressing cl...