opher White always had a fondness for gibbons, the tree-dwelling ape found throughout the rainforests of Asia. As a kid, he used to visit them at the San Francisco Zoo. “You could hear them even before you went inside,” which he and his brother found amazing, he said. “And if you go and watch them, they just move so gracefully.”
At age 26, White finally got a chance to see his favorite primate in the wild. A trained physicist, he was working at a nuclear fusion lab in France at the time. But one day in 2011 he discovered an opportunity to volunteer at a gibbon sanctuary in Indonesia and decided to go. It was there that he learned about the problems facing their natural habitat.
Indonesia is home to some of the world’s largest and most ancient rainforests. These ecosystems, however, face threats. From 2000 to 2012, endangered gibbon species in Sumatra and neighboring islands lost 54 percent of their habitat—primarily due to illegal logging and fires set to make way for agriculture.
54%
From 2000 to 2012, endangered gibbon species in Sumatra and neighboring islands lost 54% of their habitat.While working directly with the apes being rehabilitated at the gibbon reserve, White was moved to find better ways to help them. He quickly spotted a significant challenge in the way the organization was operating. “The team was actually spending a lot of their resources trying to protect the outskirts of their pretty small reserve. You know, go off, walk in the forest to find loggers,” he said.
The team was actually spending a lot of their resources trying to protect the outskirts of their pretty small reserve—go off, walk in the forest to find loggers.”
The strategy was inefficient. There is simply too much vulnerable rainforest to monitor on foot. So White had an audacious idea—one that would not only help protect rainforest ecosystems all around the world, but also eventually earn him a coveted Rolex Award for Enterprise. What if, he mused, you could use technology to listen for the tell-tale sounds of loggers from a distance, and maybe even catch them before they have a chance to cut down a single tree?
Using tech to protect
Around the globe, despite an overall decrease in deforestation over the past 25 years, illegal land clearing remains a very real concern. In the Amazon, for example, the loss of vegetation in just the month of July 2019—about 870 square miles—was equivalent to an area nearly twice the size of New York City.
Around the globe, despite an overall decrease in deforestation over the past 25 years, illegal land clearing remains a very real concern. In the Amazon, for example, the loss of vegetation in just the month of July 2019—about 870 square miles—was equivalent to an area nearly twice the size of New York City.
The story is similar in Indonesia. Willie Smits is a Dutch conservationist and animal rights activist who has worked on these issues in the archipelago nation for over four decades. He believes the problem boils down to money. “There are a huge number of cases where oil palm plantations have supported illegal logging in order to expand their land area, seemingly to ‘save’ the degraded areas and create jobs and income,” he said. “But that is mostly for the rich few.”
The story is similar in Indonesia. Willie Smits is a Dutch conservationist and animal rights activist who has worked on these issues in the archipelago nation for over four decades. He believes the problem boils down to money. “There are a huge number of cases where oil palm plantations have supported illegal logging in order to expand their land area, seemingly to ‘save’ the degraded areas and create jobs and income,” he said. “But that is mostly for the rich few.”
There are a huge number of cases where oil palm plantations have supported illegal logging in order to expand their land area, seemingly to ‘save’ the degraded areas and create jobs and income. But that is mostly for the rich few.”
These are some of the endemic issues White was up against in his quest to save the gibbons. Back in France, he began exploring ways to engineer the listening device he had in mind. He had programming experience, so developing a custom piece of software wasn’t an issue. The challenge was finding a solution that could work in the context of remote rainforests. He knew the outer perimeters of the gibbon environments under threat—the buffer zones—had surprisingly good cellular network service. After considerable trial and error, he eventually came up with the perfect solution: they could use mobile phones as recorders.
These are some of the endemic issues White was up against in his quest to save the gibbons. Back in France, he began exploring ways to engineer the listening device he had in mind. He had programming experience, so developing a custom piece of software wasn’t an issue. The challenge was finding a solution that could work in the context of remote rainforests. He knew the outer perimeters of the gibbon environments under threat—the buffer zones—had surprisingly good cellular network service. After considerable trial and error, he eventually came up with the perfect solution: they could use mobile phones as recorders.
Returning to Indonesia to test his idea, he enlisted the help of local conservationists to hang used cell phones from trees, creating a network of listening devices spread throughout the forest. He’d designed the software so that if it detected the distinctive blare of chainsaws it would send an immediate notification via email. After installing the test array, White and his comrades only had to wait an hour or two. Soon, White received an alert on his phone. Chainsaws had been detected. His invention worked.
That was in 2013. Since then, White’s creative intervention has expanded into a nonprofit organization called Rainforest Connection. The group has installed cellular listening stations in tree canopies across Sumatra, Cameroon, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. These efforts were recently given a significant boost when he was named one of five Associate Laureate winners of the 2019 Rolex Awards.
Rainforest Connection
The group has developed a mobile app that allows anyone to hear what the rainforest monitors are picking up in real time.
Hear a sample- Birdsong from Osa Conservation
- Gibbon Calls - Hulu Batang Hari
- Mantled Howler Monkey - Cerro Blanco
- Singing in Rainforest - Tembe
- Treefrogs
For White, the award casts a vital spotlight on this work. “It’s a lack of transparency in the forest that allows these places to be destroyed. If people are paying attention, it ends up being a protective force.”
It’s a lack of transparency in the forest that allows these places to be destroyed. If people are paying attention, it ends up being a protective force.”
Expanding the network
The Rainforest Connection, however, was never meant to only be a tool for professional conservationists. As part of its mission, the group has developed a mobile app that allows anyone to hear what the rainforest monitors are picking up in real time. “You can listen live to most, if not all of the guardians we have put up in the forest,” White said. “And it’s a really crazy experience because all these different places sound like Star Wars laser battles.”
The Laureate Questionnaire
Topher White considers how the Rolex accolade is growing his network of climate change cohorts and evolving his work.
For over four decades, Rolex has supported the ingenuity of activists, scientists and community leaders through the Rolex Awards for Enterprise. This effort got a boost in 2019 with the launch of Perpetual Planet, an initiative that encompasses the company’s wide-ranging interventions to support research and advocacy on environmental issues. For Rolex laureates like White, the award can amplify vital, but often under-recognized efforts to protect the planet.
How has the recognition helped broaden your efforts?
“The technology is inherently scalable, so we can really expand. We have dozens of projects and more than a thousand square miles sort of under protection at this moment, but we want to do more. Rolex has expressed a strong desire to help us grow.”
You are joining a thriving network of past and present Rolex Award winners. What has it meant to be a part of that community?
“There were five laureates and then five associate laureates out of this class of 10 finalists. We are all super tight. It’s kind of crazy the extent to which we chat with each other almost every day.”
Are there any new initiatives Rolex’s support will help you pursue?
“We’re currently building what we call a bioacoustics platform, basically a global database of sounds, in collaboration with some really great partners, including Rolex. The idea is that it could help us understand more about animal interactions, a lot of which happen sonically.”
He believes that apart from thwarting illegal activities locally, his technology is a way of bringing worldwide awareness to the problem. It was his own deep concern for the plight of the gibbons that compelled him to find a way to do something about it. He hopes the intimacy of people listening, through their headphones, to the living sounds of the rainforest in real time will help to instill a similar bond.
“The overall goal of all this is to link anybody in the world to what is happening in the forest in a way that becomes personal and emotional,” said White. “Can we get the world to understand that this is a resource that we can’t lose? Not by going there, which is not a sustainable model, but by being able to be connected to it.”