Edinburgh, 22 August 2019 – Downstream space and sustainability company Ecometrica has made a long-term commitment to collaborate with Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) and Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) beyond the Forests 2020 project, by signing a memorandum of understanding. The agreement will ensure the company’s continued involvement in Indonesia and its role in supporting sustainable forest management and the conservation of tropical forests.
The UK-based firm, whose advanced platform allows data from satellites, such as the Sentinel constellations, to be used to track changes of forests, has been helping to monitor the effects of palm oil plantation and other agricultural sectors on Indonesia’s tropical rainforests, while guiding efforts to reverse deforestation through the UK Space Agency-funded Forests 2020 initiative.
Its MoU, signed at a conference in Saarbrucken, Germany with LAPAN and IPB, means that these two Indonesian organisations will work with Ecometrica for many years beyond 2020.
Adrian Smith, chief finance officer of Ecometrica and signatory to the MoU, said: “The agreement is a long term commitment to work together and make sure that the technology and methods that we have developed these last years through Forests 2020 are not only sustained, but are made available to as many potential users as possible. This is crucial to ensuring efforts to protect the Indonesian rainforest are as effective as they possibly can be.”
“This is a partnership that will enable us to further develop the digital services of remote sensing satellite technologies and applications for the benefit of Indonesia and beyond,” explained Dr. Orbita Roswintiarti, Deputy Chairman of Remote Sensing Affairs of LAPAN.
“We recognise the urgency in addressing the wider challenges we all face, therefore, partnerships with international agencies all over the world are needed. We expect our work with Ecometrica and its partners could support us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for the environmental, economic and social benefits.”
Forests 2020 is a major investment by the UK Space Agency, as part of the International Partnership Programme (IPP), to help protect and restore up to 300 million hectares of tropical forests by improving forest monitoring in six partner countries through advanced uses of satellite data. IPP is part of, and funded from, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF): a £1.5 billion fund announced by the UK Government, which supports cutting-edge research and innovation on global issues affecting developing countries.
Project-managed by Ecometrica, Forests 2020 brings together some of the UK’s leading experts on forest monitoring at the Universities of Edinburgh and Leicester, and Carbomap.
About Forests 2020
Forests 2020 is the UK Space Agency’s flagship project to improve the monitoring of tropical forests. It involves a £14.2 million UK investment matched by resources from partner countries – Indonesia, Ghana, Kenya, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Led by Ecometrica, it involves more than 20 international partner organisations.
The project aims to improve forest monitoring systems in developing countries using spatial methods to support forest governance and biodiversity conservation. Spatial tools help to accurately and realistically understand the effect of land uses on sustainable forest management and allow for informed policies and interventions.
About Ecometrica
Ecometrica, the downstream space and sustainability company, turns the vast and growing streams of observation data from space, air and land into actionable insights for business, government and society.
A leading provider of sustainability and earth observation services, its satellite mapping technology is being used to protect 300 million hectares of tropical forests as part of the Forests 2020 project, which Ecometrica is spearheading on behalf of the UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme (IPP).
Ecometrica is one of the world’s top sustainability brands, as named by industry analyst Verdantix. It is the only CDP Gold Software Partner for its climate change, forests and water programmes. Ecometrica’s geospatial data mapping services, which support all aspects of sustainability planning, operations and reporting by businesses and public organisations, are available worldwide, through offices in the UK, USA, Canada and Mexico.
The firm is a winner of the prestigious Environmental Leader Product of the Year Award two years in a row, for its Ecometrica Platform. It is also ranked on the FT1000 list of Europe’s fastest growing companies and Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500.
Founded in 2008, Ecometrica’s formidable story derives directly from the vision of its founding members and leadership – executive chairman Dr Richard Tipper, chief executive Gary Davis and chief product officer Bertrand Revenaz. Backed by a team of recognised experts, Ecometrica has unrivalled experience in environmental sustainability accounting and reporting.
The Ecometrica Platform, a web-based accounting and sustainability management solution, combines earth observation data from satellites with local information and business intelligence, to bring clarity to environmental and natural resource challenges facing corporates and governments alike. It helps businesses to easily track and map their impact on natural capital assets, like forests and water, tracking supply chain activity, verifying sustainable product sourcing, and environmental reporting to established sustainability frameworks. It makes the terabytes of raw data being sent to Earth by satellites easily accessible, bringing limitless possibilities for its application. It is the only sustainability software solution with audit-ready assurance from a Big Four auditor (PwC). For the largest customers who get their accounts externally audited, this means avoiding costly pre-audit fees that often run into hundreds of thousands of pounds per year.
