Folks,
Dan Jenkins, an HRP board member, and I recently attended a truly remarkable conference in Washington, D.C. It was an opportunity to talk with people who care about using data to help solve our most pressing economic development problems.
The special twist was that the data is from Earth Observation (EO) technologies…. SATELLITES. Hence the name of the conference: SatSummit 2024.
Dan shared the HRP story in a break-out session. It was very cool to talk about the project we did with NASA a few years ago. That was when we compared satellite records of Haiti from a few decades ago with present day images. This analysis allowed us to begin better documentation of the impact of HRP’s reforestation work.
The conference introduced us to the next frontier in this sort of work which is to add AI to the mix. The combination of EO and AI (I’m getting fluent in the jargon) will support building apps for non-techie types to use in all sorts of ways with reforestation projects.
Talking about satellites and AI isn’t what I do every day. It was very heartening to realize that although Haiti struggles with primitive infrastructure and a failed economy, there are ways that HRP can lean into the 21st century with hope and promise. Stay tuned.
Michael Anello
Executive Director