Monitoring Chimpanzee Habitats in western Tanzania
Visualizations by
Cindy Starr
Released on January 25, 2017
In partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), NASA scientists have provided assistance in the monitoring, forecasting and conservation of natural resources in regions surrounding the Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Between 1972 and 1999, significant deforestation had occurred in the regions outside the boundary of the Gombe National Park to the detriment of the park's chimpanzee population as well as to the that of the villagers living in the region.
In 2005, JGI initiated a forest monitoring program training and in 2009 equipped community members with GPS-enabled Android smart phones and tablets to report their observations on forests threats and wildlife. Combining NASA remote sensing data with citizen science observations facilitated local people to develop and implement land use plans, leading to improved decision making and facilitating the establishment of village forest reserves.
In 2016, the Metropolitan Group developed a 4.5-minute video detailing the story of this collaboration between NASA and JGI. The video shows footage of project activities in Tanzania along with planning meetings using DigitalGlobe and NASA satellite data. The animations shown here were developed to support this production. The complete video is available here.
GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation:
Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0