Planning

The Early Warning System Forest Foresight is typically deployed in 3 phases, after which it can be considered ‘live’:

1. Preparation
   During this phase, which typically lasts 4 to 6 months, the EWS FF team validates the commitment and willingness of local stakeholders to implement EWS FF in the roll-out region. The global EWS FF team adjusts the technology to make predictions for the region , and prepares a dashboard to be used in the pilot. A pilot team is set up to select the pilot sitesarea(s), define the pilot governance model and draft a pilot plan. After the preparation, this team typically follows up on investigations and interventions.

2. Pilot
   In During the pilot, EWS FF aims to prove demonstrate its value in selected pilot sites during areas for 6 months (typically 3-5 areas are selected according to a set of criteria such as diversity of stakeholders, and different drivers of deforestation). EWS FF tools and processes are used for investigations and interventions, and feedback is collected on the predictions, dashboard, governance model and general effectiveness of EWSFF. In the second half of the pilot, the team starts to prepare the scaling of EWS FF to the full region (drafting a scaling plan, discussing with stakeholders and detailing the governance model).

3. Scaling
   After a succesful successful pilot, EWS FF can be scaled to a larger region (typically a full country, e.g. Gabon, or a full landscape, e.g. Congo Basin). During the scaling phase, the team onboards new areas and further formalizes stakeholder commitment , and a larger governance model (including e.g. including community representation). Integration with existing systems and processes can be further adjusted where needed, and agreements are made on how to manage the technology in the long term (i.e. g. ownership model).

4. Live
   After scaling, the technology is live: EWS FF is widely adopted and used for investigations and interventions in the full region. KPIs are being monitored and EWS FF is further continuously improved through based on user feedback.

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Each phase has a set of stage-gate criteria that need to be met in order to start the next phase. These criteria are evaluated by the EWS FF Steerco (with input from the Advisory Board).

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FF team

The team required to implement EWS FF in a region depends very much on the local circumstances and structure of stakeholders (which often include government institutes or ministries). A ‘host’ is defined who will lead activities that halt illegal deforestation leveraging the EWSFF. A great host has forestry and spatial planning expertise and a mandate to coordinate and execute investigations and interventions. The host is supported by remote sensing experts and GIS experts to ensure the right data is included in the EWS tools.

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