Towards a digital public infrastructure for
deforestation-related trade regulations
Live-Demo: Open Foris Whisp
WEDNESDAY 24 JULY 2024
12.00–12.30 CEST
ATRIUM
Watch a live demonstration of FAO’s latest forest monitoring innovation to ensure smallholder farmers remain market-accessible
After years of voluntary approaches for reducing deforestation linked to commodity production, mandatory regulations are on the rise (European Union Deforestation Regulation, United Kingdom FRC regime, United States FOREST Act). These regulations all have in common the need for geospatial data (boundaries, land cover and land use change).
Simple technical solutions are urgently needed for smallholder farmers to ensure sustainable practices and compliance with regulated markets. This is critical to enable their continued livelihood and their contribution to transformation of sustainable agrifood systems. Smallholder farmers should benefit from technological innovation and not be negatively impacted by the digital divide.
Under the umbrella of the Team Europe Initiative Zero-Deforestation hub, the Forest Data Partnership and Aim4Forests, FAO and partners are developing digital public solutions that facilitate traceability and the assessment of the risk of deforestation for agricultural supply chains. They provide an open-source and transparent digital environment for regulatory mechanisms on deforestation-free value chains.
These elements constitute strong building-blocks to build a digital public infrastructure and monitoring tools with the following characteristics:
- powered by interoperable open standards/specifications
- operated under a set of enabling rules
- with open, transparent, and participatory governance
- to drive innovation, inclusion, and competition at scale
Open Foris Ground and Open Foris Whisp are for everyone along the commodity supply chain, from smallholders, cooperatives, third parties, and operators, to governments and relevant authorities.
Objectives
The Forest Monitoring and Data Platform team will demonstrate and provide clarification on interoperability of two digital solutions developed to support regulation due diligence requirements:
- Open Foris GROUND, a field data collection application, co-developed with Google.
- Open Foris WHISP, a data processing flow to combine available geospatial global and national information to assess the deforestation risk and status of production plots.
Speaker
Rémi d’Annunzio
Forestry Officer, Technical Lead for the Forest Data Partnership
Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms
FAO
