The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Google launched a mobile application that allows indigenous people and farmers to collect information on their area of forest or agricultural plots.
Dubbed Ground, the app developed by FAO, Google and other partners, is designed for non-technical users who work where bandwidth is scarce or absent.
It was unveiled during the International Day of Forests last March 21. Ground is within FAO’s Open Foris initiative, which it also developed in collaboration with Google.
“Open Foris Ground was envisioned as a map-based tool that could be used in a variety of contexts with little or no special training. Indigenous people can collect data about their own lands with minimal outside help, on top of high-resolution satellite imagery from Google Earth,” said Google Earth Director Rebecca Moore in a statement.
“Open Foris Ground enables smallholder farmers and local communities to report data that’s important to their livelihoods, from the ground to the cloud. This is the most recent development in our near-decade long partnership with FAO, where among other efforts, we helped countries realize forest-based climate action.”
The UN agency said Ground will help further technological innovation across its mandate and inaugurates a new multiyear memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed last March 21 between FAO and Google.
“The new MOU will deepen the engagement from the MOU signed in 2015, which has catalyzed numerous geospatial solutions enabling FAO Members to dramatically upscale environmental literacy and implement science-based policies in practically real time, not to mention combat locusts.”
FAO hosted the International Forest Day 2024 with the organization of an event including an exhibition and technical sessions on themes ranging from how innovation is advancing ecosystem restoration and how it can empower Indigenous Peoples through mapping and securing rights to customary land.
“We are in the midst of a forest data revolution driven by innovation and technology, enabling countries to track and report on their forests more easily and effectively,” said FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo. “With 10 million hectares of forest lost annually due to deforestation and approximately 70 million hectares affected by fires, new solutions are essential.”
FAO’s recent publication “Technological innovation during transparent forest monitoring and reporting for climate action”, reviews how countries are benefiting from new technologies and their dissemination, with usable satellite imagery driving transformational approaches. The more robust estimation methods now available point to strong prospects for new types of climate finance, including through linkage to carbon markets, and an expansion of the range of actors able to drive and benefit from the emphasis on sustainability.