The cell phone is one of our century's incredible devices. It has spawned whole new industries around it. Now, we see a start up in CA, concerned, we are sure, with the waste of discarded phones, applying them to ground-breaking environmental work to protect endangered wildlife and habitat. Phenomenal and very exciting.
This story, courtesy of Environmental News Network, hits on all business side of green keys--combining technology with waste reduction with innovation around start ups and new jobs to benefit the economy and environment. Very sweet.
We will work on doing a radio show around this story.
From: Alex Kirby, The Ecologist, More from this Affiliate
Published July 9, 2014
A Californian technology startup, Rainforest Connection (RFCx), has developed a tool - made from recycled smartphones - that it says will pilot new ways to monitor and stop illegal logging and animal poaching throughout Africa's equatorial forests.
RFCx has formed a partnership with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), an international scientific charity that works for the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats.
The two organisations are planning to install the anti-deforestation, anti-poaching technology in Cameroon this year.
Randy Hayes, the founder of the Rainforest Action Network, said: "This is the most exciting critical new tool I've seen that I think can help us get the job done."
RFCx says it has developed the first real-time detection system for protecting the forests and deterring illegal logging, using discarded Android smartphones to send instant alerts to forest rangers, enabling them to intervene swiftly.
It says current monitoring methods often rely on aerial surveys or satellite surveillance, which usually detect deforestation days or even weeks after the event.
Topher White, RFCx's founder, believes the right tools have been developed at just the right moment to make a difference. He said: "It's clear that real-time awareness and intervention is a major missing piece in protecting the world's last remaining rainforests."
"By using old smartphones and existing telecommunications infrastructure, we have built a system that we think could scale quickly enough to make a real impact."
Continue reading at ENN affiliate The Ecologist.
Cell Phone image via Shutterstock.
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