Real-Time Threat Detection

We use sound & artificial intelligence to track chainsaws, vehicle engines, hunting dogs, gunshots, and other acoustic signatures detected by deployed sensors to identify illegal activities such as illegal logging and poaching.

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Our bioacoustic hardware monitors threats in the soundscape.

Our bioacoustic monitoring tool - the Guardian 3 (G3) is capable of detecting threats in real time, including but not limited to illegal logging, poaching, blast fishing and forest fires.

chainsaw_track.mp3

We send real-time alerts of threats to help rangers intervene before damage occurs.

The data-powered G3 uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to deliver real-time notifications with detailed information on threat location and captured audio of threat via our rainforest connection ranger mobile app.

Preventing Illegal Logging

Illegal deforestation is a gateway activity to clearing rainforest - one of the primary causes of climate change. According to the UN, up to 90% of logging in tropical rainforests is illegal.

The reason we start with a focus on stopping illegal logging is because, in case after case, we have seen first hand that if you can protect the trees, you end up protecting everything else. Rainforest Connection's monitoring system offers its partners the opportunity to protect key rainforest areas and respond to real-time alerts, while sharing large amounts of ecosystem data that help negotiate increased protections in these areas. In some cases, protecting the perimeter of a rainforest can actually mean protecting everything behind it.

To-date, we've protected over 750,000 hectares of rainforest land.

Join us in expanding this impact.

Illegal deforestation is a gateway activity to clearing rainforest - one of the primary causes of climate change. According to the UN, up to 90% of logging in tropical rainforests is illegal.

The reason we start with a focus on stopping illegal logging is because, in case after case, we have seen first hand that if you can protect the trees, you end up protecting everything else.

The RFCx monitoring system gives our partners the opportunity to protect key rainforest areas and respond to real-time alerts, while sharing large amounts of ecosystem data that help negotiate increased protections in these areas. In some cases, protecting the perimeter of a rainforest can actually mean protecting everything behind it.

To-date, we've protected over 750,000 hectares of rainforest land. Join us in expanding this impact.

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Guardian-Protected Communities

Using real-time bioacoustic monitoring, we work alongside tribes, villages, and local communities - helping the people who steward these lands stay safe, protect their crops and livelihoods, and preserve their cultural heritage. This is powerfully demonstrated by our work with the Tembé tribe in Brazil, where our Guardian systems empower indigenous rangers to defend their ancestral lands against illegal logging.

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Above: RFCx Founder, Topher White with Chief Ednaldo Tembé of the Tembé Tribe

Above: Visualizer used for reviewing spectrograms, listening to recordings & annotating audio

Ecotourism

By combining threat monitoring with RFCx-Arbimon’s ecoacoustic analysis, we contribute to better land management, protected-area design, and sustainable tourism standards, while supporting peer-reviewed research and helping communities develop economic opportunities through ecotourism.

View RFCx's Amazon Expedition

Stopping Animal Poaching

Our goal at Rainforest Connection is to make sure poachers no longer have free reign over the world’s rainforests.

In Africa we were able to demonstrate on a test basis that protecting and monitoring one key road used by poachers could enable the protection of a large area of rainforest.
We were able to show patterns of activity related to vehicles and poaching in the protected area after dark and during the weekends.
Rainforest Connection's monitoring system helped our partners allocate limited manpower to to target key times and days each month where poaching activities were statistically very high.

To-date, we've detected, identified and monitored over 4,200+ species & 310 threatened species.

Join us in expanding this impact.

Illegal deforestation is a gateway activity to clearing rainforest - one of the primary causes of climate change. According to the UN, up to 90% of logging in tropical rainforests is illegal.

The reason we start with a focus on stopping illegal logging is because, in case after case, we have seen first hand that if you can protect the trees, you end up protecting everything else.

Get Involved

2026 - Present

Guardian 3 (G3)

Designed by Topher White, the Guardian 3 (G3) is our most advanced bioacoustic monitoring device yet - combining three highly sensitive microphones that captures all ambient sound within a radius of 50 m to 1,500 m depending on the source of the sound.

Its unobtrusive design powered with solar panels, on-board power management and LFP battery packs provide power to the Guardians. Its specifically adapted to collect the flecks of light that make their way through the forest canopy.

24/7 Monitoring

Live App Alerts

Solar Powered

Starlink Connectivity

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2015 - 2019 (Discontinued)

Guardian 1 (G1)

The G1 pioneered real-time bioacoustic forest monitoring by repurposing used smartphones, retrofitting them with solar panels, external microphones and custom software.

2020 - 2025

Guardian 2 (G2)

The G2 advanced the platform by shifting from smartphones to optimized custom hardware and logic boards, delivering improved power management, reliability, and connectivity.