Take a stand. By taking a closer look.

Seeing means saving when you help us train AI models to detect deforestation.

You can make a difference by seeing what technology can’t.

Our AI platform is already analyzing and making sense of thousands of satellite images that show the magnitude of damage in the rainforests. But artificial intelligence can’t do it alone. We need your help to identify signs of deforestation that the model hasn’t learned to detect. Your participation – whether you identify deforestation in just one or 100 images – will allow us to fine-tune AI models that can detect change in the Amazon and alert conservation and government organizations responsible for protecting it.

Seeing the future of Amazon conservation

This novel approach to rainforest conservation makes it possible for experts to focus on harder-to-classify areas. It also opens the door to new technological approaches to detecting and preventing deforestation.

The AI models can be tied into new or existing deforestation monitoring systems, and future efforts that implement time-series analysis could help create improved alert capabilities to take conservationists from detection to prevention. Applying AI to satellite data also has potential applications beyond deforestation, in areas like:

Pollution

Migration

Food Security

Natural Hazards

Wildfires

Sustainable Agriculture

If we aren’t careful, we will watch our ecosystem deteriorate through a process of degradation, a small and marginal process, but collectively devastating over time. Albert Van Jaarsveld CEO International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

The APPROACH

Humans Amplifying AI

AI doesn’t happen magically. It relies on the expertise of people as the basis for its training data. The crowd’s input gave the AI models examples to learn from, and the accuracy improved as more examples were provided.

The Modeling Cycle Simplified

THE TECHNOLOGY

Working hard behind the scenes

As computer vision models analyze millions of images every day to identify the earliest signs of new deforestation, government policymakers and aid organizations can intervene to protect these forests before it's too late.

AI driving conservation efforts with scale and speed

The global challenge to protect our planet would be impossible without the robust scalability provided by SAS® Viya®. Our open analytics platform with cloud enabled, in-memory processing gives you accurate results at incredibly fast speeds. Research data that took years to analyze can now be put to good use in a fraction of the time.

In the News

  • How to fight deforestation in the Amazon from your couch.

    If you’ve got 30 seconds and a decent internet connection, you can help protect the planet. SAS and IIASA are looking to AI and citizen scientists to track and combat destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

  • 5 of the Most Meaningful Business Moments of 2020

    SAS' rainforest initiative has won recognition as having a superlative impact on society and the environment. Partnering with IIASA, SAS brings AI and crowdsourcing together have an impact on deforestation.

    Keep the conversation going to keep our planet safer.

    Our knowledge and passion can have a real impact in preserving our world. So get involved and ask others to do the same at #rainforest.