Community-led Forest Technologies: A Smart Forests Final Report

Community-led Forest Technologies: A Smart Forests Final Report

References and resources

Allan, Sarah. “What Role for Government? A Practical Guide to the Types, Roles and Spaces of Public Engagement on Climate.” Involve. September 2023. https://involve.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/docuemnt/What%20role%20for%20government%20-%20a%20practical%20guide%20to%20the%20types%2C%20roles%20and%20spaces%20of%20public%20engagement%20on%20climate.pdf.

Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest. https://savingscotlandsrainforest.org.uk.

Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM). “SOMAI.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/radio/ipam-somai.

Araos, Francisco, Jaime Cursach, Florencia Diestre, Joaquin Almonacid, and Wladimir Riquelme Maulén. “Community Sentinels. Methodology Guide for Community Participatory Monitoring.” Citizen Science Laboratory, Los Lagos University. 2021. https://qesclimatejustice.info.yorku.ca/files/2022/07/Guía-Metodológica-Inglés-2022-1.pdf?x57905.

Awana Digital. “Mapeo.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/radio/awana-digital.

Azavea. “PhillyTreeMap.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/urban-forest-maps/#phillytreemap.

Barron, Dominique, and Anna Dent. “Affordable, Accessible, and Easy-to-Use: A Radically Inclusive Approach to Building a Better Digital Society.” Promising Trouble. May 2024. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61b777e69d4a594596081bcc/t/6656ebaff3caf658b862537a/1716972464862/AFFORDABLE-ACCESSIBLE-EASY-TO-USE-FINAL.pdf.

British Academy. “Space for Community: Strengthening our Social Infrastructure.” January 2023. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/4536/Space_for_community_strengthening_our_social_infrastructure_vSUYmgW.pdf

British Academy. “The Justice Dimensions of Extracting Energy Transition Metals from the Pacific.” July 2022. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/4200/Just-transitions-justice-dimensions-extracting-energy-metals-pacific.pdf.

British Academy. “Understanding the Role of Place in Environmental Sustainability: A Summary of Insights from Where We Live Next Commissioned Research.” March 2023. https://doi.org/10.5871/where-we-live-next/role-of-place-in-environmental-sustainability.  

BurnBot. “BurnBot.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/radio/burnbot/.

Célia Xakriabá and Tukumã Pataxó. “Papo de Parente Podcast.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/indigenizing-podcasts-in-brazil/#papo-de-parente-podcast.

Climate Outreach. “Indigenous Media Presence: Climate Imagery, Land Use and Indigenous Peoples in Central and South America.” September 2021. https://climateoutreach.org/reports/indigenous-media-presence-report

Climate Outreach. “Supporting Public Engagement on Climate Change – A Guide for Grant-makers.” October 2023. https://climateoutreach.org/reports/public-engagement-philanthropy/.

Coldicutt, Rachel, and Anna Dent. “The Case for Community Tech.” Promising Trouble. September 2022. https://www.powertochange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PTC_3912_Community_Tech_Report_FINAL-1.pdf.

Dave, Radhika, Carole Saint-Laurent, Lara Murray, et al. “Second Bonn Challenge Progress Report: Application of the Barometer in 2018.” 2019. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2019.06.en

Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Social Science Expert Group (Defra SSEG). Review of Public Engagement. October 2022. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-public-engagement.

Durham University and Durham Wildlife Trust. “MammalWeb.”  https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/citizen-science-platforms/#mammalweb.

Earthwatch Europe. “Tiny Forest.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/tiny-forest.

Engine Room Library. “Rainforest Technology Primer.” Accessed 2025.  https://library.theengineroom.org/rainforest-tech.

Food and Agriculture Organization, International Labour Organization, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. “Occupational Safety and Health in the Future of Forestry Work.2023. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc6723en.

Gabrys, Jennifer, Michelle Westerlaken, and Yuti Ariani Fatimah. “Actually Existing Smart Forests: A Proposal for Pluralizing Eco-Technical Worlds.” In the special issue, “The Forest Multiple: Composing and Digitalizing Wooded Worlds,” Environment and Planning F: Philosophy, Theory, Models, Methods and Practice (July 2024): 1-23. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/26349825241264393.

Gabrys, Jennifer, Michelle Westerlaken, Danilo Urzedo, Max Ritts, and Trishant Simlai. “Reworking the Political in Digital Forests: The Cosmopolitics of Socio-technical Worlds.” Progress in Environmental Geography 1, nos. 1-4 (December 2022): 58-83. http://sage.cnpereading.com/paragraph/article/?doi=10.1177/27539687221117836.

Gabrys, Jennifer. “Smart Forests and Data Practices: From the Internet of Trees to Planetary Governance.” Big Data & Society 7, no. 1 (February 2020): 1-10. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053951720904871.

Gilman, Michele. “Democratizing AI: Principles for Meaningful Public Participation.” Data & Society. September 2023. https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DS_Democratizing-AI-Public-Participation-Brief_9.2023.pdf.

Kitson, Nikki, and Matt Wilson. “Mobile Technology for Participatory Forest Management.” GSMA. 2021. https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/connectivity-for-good/mobile-for-development/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Mobile_Technology_for_Participatory_Forest_Management_Web_Singles.pdf.

Kumar, Amit. “CBD’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 5: Final Assessment of Aichi Biodiversity Targets and Beyond.” Asian Biotechnology and Development Review Vol. 22, No.2&3 (2020): 5-20. https://newasiaforum.ris.org.in/sites/newasiaforum.ris.org.in/files/ris-diary/ABDR-November%202020.pdf#page=11.

Lewis Hood, Kate, and Jennifer Gabrys. “Keeping Time with Digital Technologies: From Real-Time Environments to Forest Futurisms.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 42, issue 2 (February 2024): 252-274. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02637758241229896.

Lindner, Marcus, Kristina Blennow, Blujdea Viorel, et al. “EIP-AGRI Focus Group: Forest Practices & Climate Change. New Forest Practices and Tools for Adaptation and Mitigation of Climate Change.” European Commission. 2019. https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/sites/default/files/eip-agri_fg_forest_practices_climate_change_final_report_2018_en.pdf

"Lost Rainforests of Britain" map. https://lostrainforestsofbritain.org/2022/12/13/public-create-map-of-britains-lost-rainforests.

Martin, Adrian, David Brown, and Janet Fisher. “Socially Just Landscape Restoration in the Scottish Highlands.” The Just Scapes project. May 2023. https://cdn.sanity.io/files/wql58zs5/production/2cdd7578a31dc0a353323dca2f811c38c4cde15b.pdf.

Mind the Film with Smart Forests. Forest Technologies Workshop: Co-creating Environmental Knowledge and Practice film. United Kingdom, 2026. 2min., 36 sec. https://smartforests.net/kew-workshop-film.

Mind the Film with Smart Forests. Rainforest Regeneration in Scotland: Communities and Technologies film. United Kingdom, 2026. 11 min., 41 sec. https://smartforests.net/rainforest-regeneration-film.

Mind the Film with Smart Forests. Smart Forests film. United Kingdom, 2025. 21 min., 5 sec. https://smartforests.net/smart-forests-film.

Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program (MAAP). “Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Program (MAAP).” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/monitoring-of-the-andean-amazon-program-maap.

Moriniere, Sasha, Ben Snaith, Calum Inverarity, Hannah Redler-Hawes, Julie Freeman, and Jared Robert Keller. “Power, Ecology and Diplomacy in Critical Data Infrastructures.” Open Data Institute. April 2023. https://doi.org/10.61557/hqez4271.

Nabuurs, Gert-Jan, Philippe Delacote, David Ellison, et al. “A New Role for Forests and the Forest Sector in the EU post-2020 Climate Targets.” From Science to Policy 2. 2015. https://doi.org/10.36333/fs02.

NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland, and Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland. “Forgotten Woodlands (in Gaaelic Coilltean Caillte).” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/forgotten-woodlands.

Rainforest Foundation Norway, and the Engine Room. “Rainforest Protection and Responsible Investment: A Quick-start Guide to Improving Companies’ Behaviour in Rainforests by Influencing Investors.” The Engine Room. June 2016. https://www.theengineroom.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Rainforest-protection-and-responsible-investment.pdf.

Rainforest Foundation UK. “The Mapping for Rights Methodology: a New Approach to Participatory Mapping in the Congo Basin.” 2015. https://www.mappingforrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/RFUK-mapping-for-rights-methodology.pdf.

Rainforest Foundation US. “Rainforest Alert.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/monitoring-tools-for-indigenous-territory-in-the-amazon/#rainforest-alert.

Ritts, Max, Trishant Simlai, and Jennifer Gabrys. “The Environmentality of Digital Acoustic Monitoring: Emerging Formations of Spatial Power in Forests.” Political Geography 110 (April 2024): 103074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103074.

Sadan, Mandy, Dan Smyer Yü, Dan Seng Lawn, David Brown, and Ronghui (Kevin) Zhou. “Rare Earth Elements, Global Inequalities and the ‘Just Transition.’” The British Academy. July 2022. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/4203/Just-transitions-rare-elements-global-inequalities.pdf.

Sharma, Neha, Sanjan Sabherwal, Ben Peppiatt, Nina Cutler, and Amy Ramdehal. “Using Experimental Methods to Reimagine Decision-making for the Freshwater System, Post 2043.” Policy Lab. February 2024. https://openpolicy.blog.gov.uk/2024/02/07/using-experimental-methods-to-reimagine-decision-making-for-the-freshwater-system-post-2043.

Shrubsole, Guy. The Lost Rainforests of Britain. HarperCollins UK, 2022.

Simlai, Trishant, and Chris Sandbrook. “The Gendered Forest: Digital Surveillance Technologies for Conservation and Gender-Environment Relationships.” In the special issue, “The Forest Multiple: Composing and Digitalizing Wooded Worlds,” Environment and Planning F: Philosophy, Theory, Models, Methods and Practice. (November 2024). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/26349825241283837.

Smart Forests and Fundación Mar Adentro. Ecologies of Fire / Ecologías del Fuego. Cambridge, UK, and Santiago, CL, 2026. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.129356.

Smart Forests. “Smart Forests Atlas.” https://atlas.smartforests.net.

Smart Forests. “Smart Forests Atlas: Radio.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/radio.

Smart Forests. “Smart Forests Atlas: Stories.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/stories.

Smart Forests. “Smart Forests: Publications.” https://smartforests.net/publications.

The Forest Curriculum. “The Forest Curriculum.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/the-forest-curriculum.

The Redário platform. “The Redário platform.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/brazils-seed-networks/#redario.

The Yurok Tribe. “The Yurok Tribe Environmental Programme.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/yurok-tribe-environmental-program/#yurok-tribe-carbon-offsetting.

Torresan, Chiara, Marta Benito Garzón, Michael O’Grady, et al. “A New Generation of Sensors and Monitoring Tools to Support Climate-smart Forestry Practices.” Canadian Journal of Forest Research 51 (March 2021): 1751-65. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2020-0295.

UCL. “UCL ExCiteS.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/participatory-mapping-in-the-republic-of-the-congo/#participatory-monitoring-in-the-republic-of-the-congo-with-excites.

UK FCDO. “Frontier Tech Hub.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/frontier-tech-hub.

United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021. “Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use.” Archived April 18, 2023. https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20230418175226/https://ukcop26.org/glasgow-leaders-declaration-on-forests-and-land-use.  

United Nations. “New York Declaration on Forests (2014).” Climate Summit. 2014. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/NYDF_Declaration.pdf.

Urzedo, Danilo, Michelle Westerlaken, and Jennifer Gabrys. “Digitalizing Forest Landscape Restoration: A Social and Political Analysis of Emerging Technological Practices.” Environmental Politics 32, no. 3 (July 2022), 485-510. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2022.2091417.

USDA Forest Service. “i-Tree.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/i-tree.

Westerlaken, Michelle, Jennifer Gabrys, and Danilo Urzedo. “Digital Gardening with a Forest Atlas: Designing a Pluralistic and Participatory Open-Data Platform.” PDC '22: Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2022 2 (August 2022): 25-32. https://doi.org/10.1145/3537797.3537804.  

Westerlaken, Michelle, Jennifer Gabrys, Danilo Urzedo, and Max Ritts. “Unsettling Participation by Foregrounding More-Than-Human Relations in Digital Forests.” Environmental Humanities 15, no. 1 (2023): 87–108. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-10216173.

Westerlaken, Michelle. “Digital Twins and the Digital Logics of Biodiversity.” Social Studies of Science 54, no. 4 (March 2024). https://doi.org/10.1177/03063127241236809.

World Resources Institute. “Global Forest Watch.” https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks/global-forest-watch/.

About Smart Forests

The Smart Forests project is led by Professor Jennifer Gabrys and is part of the Planetary Praxis research group based in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Sociology. The project is principally funded by the European Research Council (ERC). The project investigates the social-political impacts of the digital technologies that increasingly govern, manage and monitor forests worldwide, and asks how forests are remade by these technologies. Crossing science and technology studies (STS) and digital media studies, the research into digital technologies has followed themes of observation, participation, datafication, automation and optimisation, and regulation and transformation. Through exploring how various smart forest technologies impact social, political and ecological relations, the project ultimately seeks to suggest possibilities for more equitable digital and environmental policy and practice. 

For more information on the Smart Forests project or to delve into the stories, examples and interviews mentioned in this report, visit https://atlas.smartforests.net and https://smartforests.net.

To watch the short film about the Smart Forests project, visit https://smartforests.net/smart-forests-film.

To read Logbooks about Smart Forests, visit https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/logbooks.

To listen to the Smart Forests Radio podcast, visit https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/radio.

To explore the Smart Forests Map, visit https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/map.

You are also invited to contribute relevant material to our Atlas if you would like to sign up as a contributor. More information is available at https://atlas.smartforests.net.

Copyright

Smart Forests materials are free to use for non-commercial purposes (with attribution) under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

To cite this report: Hamilton-Jones, Phoebe, Jennifer Gabrys, Michelle Westerlaken, Yuti Ariani Fatimah, Trishant Simlai, and Noel Chung, Community-led Forest Technologies: A Smart Forests Final Report (16 July 2026), https://publications.smartforests.net/en/forest-technologies-final-report.

Credits

Fonts: Monaco, Marr (Commercial Type)
Design process: Web to print with paged.js
Graphic design: Angeline Ostinelli and Sarah Garcin
Programming: Sarah Garcin