Peru lost 1.97 Mha of humid primary forest between 2002 to 2019. The majority of these losses occur in non-categorized forests (43%) and in native communities' forest (17%). The government is monitoring forest losses by means of a national forest monitoring system driven by remote sensing data. This system has difficulties in detecting local changes and lacks a component to stop the losses. Therefore, the government started community-based approaches. However the effective implementation is lacking for two reasons: 1) the roles, responsibilities and priorities for integrating community-based monitoring in national forest monitoring systems is unclear and 2) tools that support local communities in forest monitoring are still scarce.
To improve community-based forest monitoring, we worked with national, regional and local government agencies in three local communities: Puerto Ocopa, Loma Linda Laguna and San Pedro de Pichanaz in the central Peruvian Amazon. We designed an interactive forest monitoring system together with local stakeholders. This system assists locals in identifying areas with forest changes, it integrates all information in one dashboard, and it facilitates the sharing of information between stakeholders. The main features of our interactive forest monitoring system include a near real-time forest change detection based on satellite images; and a mobile app to document the process of forest change, in terms of their location, the area of concern, the timing and underlying causes. More than 150 local communities were trained to use the app.
The interactive forest monitoring system and underlying tools are well received and are being scaled to >400 communities across Peru and impact is being monitored. The presented system is applicable to a broader geographic scope. For example, the same system has been successfully implemented in Ethiopia.
