Planet, the American Earth imaging company, has launched a new program that will provide satellite imagery and analytics from its catalogue to non-profit organisations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The offering addresses two issues that they often face:
- Budgetary constraints
- Lack of adequate resources, infrastructure and technical expertise for data processing
The move intends to help NGOs and non-profits extract information easily and create applications that power decisions, leading to swift action.
“If we want to accelerate action on the critical issues of our time — including the climate emergency, threats to nature, sustainable and inclusive development, public health and global peace and security among them — we must supercharge the NGOs that work on these vital issues,” said Andrew Zolli, Planet’s Chief Impact Officer.
“This is an effort to do just that, by reducing the barriers and getting the best available data into the most relevant hands.”
Due to the lack of funding and other resources, NGOs often work on issues without a pre-planned solution. This amalgamation of creating awareness with technological ingenuity can catapult new powerful use cases for the commercial market segment.
The Nature Conservancy Project
A practical usage of Planet’s imagery data is with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), an environmental not-for-profit agency based out of Virginia, USA.
TNC is using Planet Scope and SkySat imagery to develop high-resolution regional maps of mangroves in the Caribbean and Papua New Guinea, and seagrasses in the Caribbean and China.
“Without easily accessible, up-to-date information, conservation groups like ours find it difficult to analyze and select optimal sites for effective conservation and restoration efforts within these blue carbon ecosystems, which are key to mitigating climate change,” says Emily Landis, Climate and Ocean Lead, TNC.
Mangroves and seagrasses provide important ecosystem services such as sequestering and storing large amounts of carbon, providing habitat for important commercial and recreational species, and natural protection against storm surges.
