New technology helps turn the tide against illegal logging in Peru
Peru's rainforests, one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, face a significant threat from illegal logging. However, a powerful new tool developed by Sheffield researchers now enables near real-time detection of individual tree removal, strengthening the fight against deforestation.
Rainforests are being lost at an alarming rate, mainly due to human activities like farming, selective logging, cattle farming, and construction. This deforestation not only contributes to global warming through the release of carbon into the atmosphere, but it also harms wildlife, disrupts water cycles, and impacts forest-dependent communities.
Peru’s rainforests are one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet and have a crucial role to play in the fight against climate change. However, this natural heritage is under threat, as illegal tree logging has led to the removal of some of the forest's most valuable and ecologically important trees for international export and sale on the global timber market.
While some tree felling is permitted in selected areas, illegal logging is the unlawful harvesting, processing, transport, and export of timber. This illicit activity often undermines efforts towards sustainability and conservation, and addressing it requires strong governance, law enforcement, international cooperation, and reduced customer demand.
However, because selective logging doesn’t fell large areas of forest indiscriminately, policing areas where it occurs illegally can be challenging to do from the air, and it takes extraordinary amounts of resources to monitor the forests on foot or with drones, which can also be dangerous.
Recognising the challenges of monitoring subtle deforestation, the University of Sheffield's Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures has developed a powerful new tool. Drawing on its long track record of using Earth Observation data for global conservation, the centre created this tool to enable near real-time detection of subtle changes in rainforest canopies, in a bid to strengthen the fight against deforestation.
Developing sustainable solutions using Earth Observation data
For the past 25 years, Dr Rob Bryant from the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield has been at the forefront of utilising Earth observation data – imagery collected from space – to understand our planet's surface. His work has focused on the analysis and exploitation of this data to monitor and interpret land surface processes over time. This understanding of Earth observation laid the groundwork for possible applications in environmental protection.
Building on Dr Bryant’s early research, a team from the University of Sheffield’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures designed digital tools which use a machine learning approach to accurately detect the removal of individual trees. The technology relies on satellite-based data to assess forest degradation and provides evidence of selective logging and tree canopy loss.
“The tree logging project came about as part of a Grantham PhD and the PhD student was Dr Matthew Hethcoat. The whole ethos of the Grantham Centre is that it brings people together from different disciplines and the idea was to have a project that focused on sustainability” explains Dr Bryant.
“The supervision of Matt was a collaborative effort, uniting myself with Professor Shaun Quegan from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (also in Earth Observation) and Professor David Edwards, formerly from the School of Bioscience (now at the University of Cambridge)".
"As the extent of selective logging (legal or illegal) is poorly understood globally, the aim of the project was really to look at how we would be able to quantify tropical selective logging using satellite data over large areas - and the PhD produced really great results” adds Dr Bryant.
Following the success of the project, the team collaborated with the World Resources Institute (WRI), a non-governmental organisation that works to quantify forest removal across the world. WRI identified a need for software to map selective logging in Peru, which prompted the team to adapt the tools developed into usable products for Peruvian Government agency, OSINFOR.
Tracking illegal selective logging in Peru
In 2023, the Sheffield team delivered the technology to OSINFOR which was updated to track illegal logging in near real-time. It enabled officials to send drones, or personnel on foot to the gaps to confirm whether illegal logging had taken place, and check shipments of lumber that look suspicious.
Since its implementation, OSINFOR reported that the Sheffield technology has so far been responsible for identifying as much as 37 per cent of all reported illegal logging across 1.8 million hectares of its rainforests. Between 2023 and 2024, use of the tools also led to the seizure of over 41,000 m3 of illegal wood, with a market value of in excess of US$19 Million. This has helped enable Peru to prosecute offenders, leverage fines and build capacity to fight the illegal logging that is a real threat to the valuable rainforest.
"The ability to detect and respond to illegal selective logging in near-real time is a game-changer. This allows enforcement agencies to focus their efforts and resources where they’re needed most, saving time, reducing costs, and minimising risk to personnel. The partnership between Sheffield and Peruvian agencies is a powerful example of how smart, targeted innovation can transform how we can use technology to safeguard forests that are vital to the climate, biodiversity, and local livelihoods” explains Dr Matthew Hethcoat (Research Scientist at the Canadian Forest Service and former PhD scholar at the University of Sheffield Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures).
Looking to the future
The University continues to partner with OSINFOR to develop the capability of the tools as part of its ongoing work with local agencies and teams to deter illegal logging behaviours, and protect and conserve the rainforest.
Recently, two Peruvian forest specialists travelled to Sheffield to work with Dr Bryant, Dr Bousfield from the School of Biosciences and Dr dos Santos from the School of Computer Science to learn more about this new technology. Knowledge gained from this experience is already being implemented for the effective and timely monitoring of forest resources.
“There are a few areas that OSNIFOR would like us to develop further. Based on feedback from two years of use in Peru, we are in the process of updating and refining our tools. In addition, CITES, the global wood trade regulator, has added new species to its list, meaning their logging and trade have to be very carefully monitored. So we're also currently working with them to see if we can use their drone data to automatically extract species as well” explains Dr Bryant.
As we look ahead, the technology has the potential to be used and applied globally, providing a powerful means of monitoring selective logging across global tropical forests. This could aid efforts to combat deforestation and protect these vital ecosystems for future generations.
For further information contact: mediateam@sheffield.ac.uk.
