Open Foris launches visualization solution to support forest monitoring for transparent commodity value chains

To enhance a digital public infrastructure for deforestation-related trade regulations, FAO's Open Foris has developed a suite of innovative solutions to help smallholders, decision-makers, operators and third-party verification actors to assess the deforestation risk related to commodity production at the plot level using innovative forest monitoring.  

A key component of this effort is the Whisp (“What is in that plot?”) solution, developed under the Open Foris umbrella. Whisp supports a "convergence of evidence" approach, combining multiple available open data sources to overcome individual biases or inconsistencies to help determine if a plot or location is within forest, whether disturbance has been detected or if any commodities have been mapped. The data overlayed in each plot and used for risk are entirely open source. The entire list of data sets can be found here.   

Whisp generates a table where each plot is listed, showing its corresponding indicators side by side, providing valuable insights and flagging potential risk from associated deforestation. The solution is accessible via the Whisp application programming interface (API), the Whisp on EarthMap and mobile applications like Open Foris Ground, making it easy to adopt. 

The visualization tool (dashboard) was initially developed to support the European Commission’s Sustainable Cocoa Initiative and efforts to map the presence of agro-forestry cocoa and the potential impacts on forests in Cameroon (COCAFORI). Cocoa plantation locations were assessed to determine if they were located within particular forest types, detectable prior to 2020, and therefore, appropriate to be incorporated into a cocoa mapping model built on artificial intelligence. A simple decision tree was developed to better understand the potential of satellite remote sensing and available spatial data to detect agro-forestry cocoa. A dashboard was then adapted to communicate requirements for regulatory compliance, and for user friendly interaction, visualization and assessment of risk.  

The Whisp dashboard has now been produced as a Power Bi and Tableau template to allow users to instantly produce their own interactive, visual display of results and determine their potential compliance risk relative to the demand-side trade regulations. Users of the dashboard can query, select, and filter their outputs, assess overall risk, and view plots in the Whisp on EarthMap. The template can be viewed online, downloaded from GitHub, and amended as desired. 

In Cameroun 4,000 polygons of geo-located cocoa plantations were analysed using Whisp, and assessed via the dashboard. The assessment concluded that a significant majority of the areas were classified as "low risk," which was an encouraging outcome given the complex nature of cocoa cultivation in agroforestry. 

"The Whisp solution and the associated dashboard will enable actors in the cocoa sector in Cameroun to quickly evaluate the potential risk of deforestation related to cocoa production. This assessment is crucial to maintaining access for Cameroonian cocoa to the international commodity market" remarked Ghislain Mofou, from the European Forest Initiative, an organisation working closely to support producer countries in Africa and Latin America.  

The Whisp analysis and dashboard can support validation of polygons and identifying any errors. For example, in the case presented in the image above four polygons are flagged with erroneous topology or geographic information, which can be communicated back to the data providers for verification.