Welcome to Forest Forces
It is our mission to preserve rainforests by giving traditional communities access to justice using science and technology.
The challenge
While international agreements and regulations exists to stop deforestation in the Amazon, the reality on the ground is that illegal logging (for timber) and deforestation (for agriculture) continue. In 2014, in order to compensate for the lack of local forest monitoring, we set up a project of GPS forest community watch on some hotspots of illegal logging and continued deforestation for soy in Brazil’s Para state, known for its high (illegal) deforestation rates and high levels of violence against forest community leaders.
The initiatives
Financially supported by crowd funding of alumni of Utrecht University, we distributed some water proof GPS cameras among forest communities that live near deforestation hotspots. GPS pictures of illegal logging and deforestation or land grabbing are being taken and collected. Para’s Prosecutor’s Office has welcomed the possibility of receiving and using these GPS pictures as possible proof. GPS pictures have already helped forest communities. For example, in 2016 they enabled Chief Dada to present GPS pictures as evidence of illegal logging in their territory. The authorities consequently fined a timber company.
The progress
We are increasing our efforts in International collaboration to further our mission. All your support is welcome. Please read up on our latest adventures.
The team
Tim Boekhout van Solinge MA PhD, is a criminologist, researcher, lecturer and consultant.
In 2016, Tim left the academic world in order to dedicate himself more tot the preservation of tropical rainforest, amongst others by expanding the system of local forest monitoring with GPS cameras which he started in 2014.
We wish to expand this promising project of GPS supported forest community monitoring. We also wish to make this project more international as it concerns a truly international issue: the products that drive logging and deforestation in the Amazon (beef, soy, timber) are mainly for export markets. The demand side of this market should also be addressed if we want to halt deforestation such as in the Amazon.