Green Growth Forests is the first project from South America on the SPOTTERON citizen science platform. Suriname is a small country in South America, an impressive 93 per cent of it is covered in dense forests. One could say it‘s one of the greenest countries on the planet. Suriname’s forest contributes to the world’s climate change as one of two carbon negative countries globally, and it harbours the world’s fourth-largest amount of freshwater resources.
A Citizen Science App to keep Suriname green
To keep it that way, the Green Growth Suriname Foundation teamed up with SPOTTERON to develop a citizen science app where users can keep watch on the forests and the tree logging there, and contribute to complement existing national data on forest conservation.
Data gathered by citizens can help scientists understand the drivers of tree logging and find solutions for it.
Suriname has few data on its forests due to limited well-funded research and monitoring institutions. The country aims to gather much-needed data to effectively make decisions, plan and manage forests.
In the app, users can observe if there were any signs of (illegal) logging, if there are any logs or processed wood lying around, and what kind of timber is being logged.
Data gathering through the Green Growth app is the glue for creating cohesion on forest conservation among the 600.000 people living in Suriname. The goal is to create an active community of forest watchers and keep Suriname green.