High-tech, low-resource.
Technology is only valuable if it enables meaningful lives.
Videography by @ZachZublenaTechnology is a tool
One of our values is “Now.” We live in the Now, we work in the realities of Now, and we turn off our phones for the Now.
We like technology that is sturdy, solves real-world problems and enables quality human interactions. We teach our growers how to use emerging technologies to achieve digital equity and financial independence, but we’re selective about the technologies we introduce.
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![Drone technology amazon]()
Drones
We use drones for aerial photography, videos, topographical mapping, and some 3D scans (LiDAR and point-cloud photogrammetry).
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![Savimbo AI and Machine learning]()
AI & ML
AI and machine learning are old hat to a lot of our crew. We’re very selective about the application and ethics of AI on our sites but have developed our own occasionally.
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![Game camera]()
Game cameras
Good old game cameras base a lot of our jungle biodiversity projects. Robust to high-humidity and rapidly adopted by communities. We don’t tag animals so as not to disrupt wildlife.
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![technology amazon]()
Satellite
Satellite mapping provides a visual representation of the terrain, allowing for detailed maps of large areas with high accuracy.
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![Cofan mobile phone]()
Smartphones
We use mobile phones for on-the-ground tracking. Tropical forests are not made for technology and we love Otterbox because it works.
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![Internet stations Amazon]()
Internet
We like being off the grid and many of our growers do too. We do install satellite internet stations for community use, medivac, and to enable electronic payments but we use GPS the rest of the time.
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![gps_amazon_technology]()
GIS
It’s important to us to teach communities modern topography and mapping tools so they are more autonomous in their land managment.
Drones
Drone data helps us certify our climate credits, assess biodiversity and ecosystems, track and compare our reforestation plots, establish land rights for Indigenous groups, and create promotional videos for our admittedly rabid fans.
The video to the right is the maiden flight of our first drone scan. We validate our plots, track carbon sequestration and jungle integrity, patrol for deforestation, do homegrown publicity, and certify our credits using drones.
A big part of Savimbo's mandate is to train local talent on emerging technologies instead of importing outsiders to manage projects so they can adapt them for local aims.
Fernando & Jhonier in first drone scan 2022AI & ML
We’re not naive about AI, but we are cautious.
Our founders have significant experience in how it can help automate routine data entry, or be misused or even extractive in underserved populations.
We’re very mindful that AI is difficult to properly negotiate, given the informed part of consent. So we work hard to make ethical data contracts, and our algorithms are owned by Savimbo which has a built-in equity share.
We built a small algorithm with KungFu AI for below-canopy jungle identification, who were very ethical in development and data handling. Then we participated with the Google AI for Nature accelerator for the application of SpeciesNet which we adore and highly recommend.
We’re interested to see what else comes out of our work in AI. Right now our main focus is making an ethical, open-source legal contract for ethical provision of community data to AI.
Savimbo team in the Google AI for Nature accelerator
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We do partner with companies who ethically use blockchain in their backend, its great for backing registries like EcoRegistry, and Dovu.
But we chose early on not to use it for our build (high gas fees with incremental benefits). Instead Kapital is a Web2 DAO, and we use the most stable regional fiat banking system for payments due to lack of financial regulation for crypto in our jurisdictions.
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Jhony identifies trees by taste and we are very interested in possible future ways of capturing scents, or associated organylyptics with DNA and associating them with this more embodied kinesthetic library.
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Yeah quantum computing is so cool. We think its closer in the pipeline than most people grok and are working on cybersecurity protocols for our backend that will be resistant to hacking for this emerging technology.