Launch of Map for Environment, unprecedented environmental data in the commons

Mikel Maron
Mon, 29 Aug 2016 00:00:00 -0400

Our friends Moabi are launching Map for Environment, working with OpenStreetMap to monitor the world’s natural resources, and addressing the toughest problems facing our planet.

From space, the earth’s great forests and rivers still seem intact and flowing, providing food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions, and home to thousand of species of animals. Zoom in, and the threats – logging roads, industrial agriculture, dams – to these great natural phenomena become apparent. Transparency is key to monitor and act to protect these places, yet many of these places and activities are unmapped.

Picture Credit: Matt Zimmerman

Map for Environment follows the model of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and Missing Maps, who have pioneered open mapping to support humanitarian response. Map for Environment will use tools like the OpenStreetMap Tasking Manager for environmental topics and build partnerships with conservation organizations, to map the humanitarian disaster slowly unraveling in the world’s critical ecosystems.

With our support, Map for Environment will launch this Saturday at a session at the International Union for Conservation of Nature Congress, opened by Jane Goodall, with a task to map logging roads in chimpanzee habitat. Help out here!