Social movements to protect and improve the health of natural systems are gaining momentum. However, in many cases efforts on-the-ground remain under-supported, reducing capacity to plan, implement and monitor projects.
After research and engagement with practitioners and domain experts, we identified key factors reducing capacity and bankability of projects due to misalignment between communities and technical assistance.
The lack of solutions able to address unique needs of the environmental sector created a tendency to rely on generalist 'freeware' or proprietary tools with limited cross-system interoperability and return on investment.
There is a clear need for more advanced technical systems to plan projects, use time and resources efficiently, support innovation, and address sector priorities. Addressing this lifts capacity to manage and scale-up initiatives.
This division works to find, test, integrate, deploy and maintain high-quality technology solutions, and ensure long-term availability.
As developers / maintainers of the open.landscape.network, a system helping environmental projects to organize and scale-up collective action, responsibilities include compiling requirements, managing development priorities and supporting users.
We also engage contributors and providers of components that may be integrated in the OLN "core." By supporting growth and evolution of this system, we aim to help environmental projects achieve their goals.
The open-source hardware community enables reproducible scientific research and business opportunities through transparent environmental monitoring. However, using such tools adds dependency on supply chains and system maintenance, among other considerations.
To help navigate these challenges, we aim to support connecting infrastructure, independent technical assessments, quality tests, and pilot deployments. This helps ensure the use of hardware in environmental research and business is as effective and sustainable as possible.