Tunisia has battled severe drought and climate-related losses for years. Hoping for a breakthrough, a local tech team is testing if an AI-fire prediction system can protect forests and communities from wildfires.
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00:00It looks like a hidden camera for observing wildlife, but it's actually much more sophisticated.
00:06Nadir Sahli and his team are hanging up 10 devices with cameras that can detect fires early on.
00:13Over 300 hectares of forest are being monitored in Tunisia's northern Raschebel area.
00:21We're using artificial intelligence as a sensor.
00:26It can detect active sources of fire and predict future ones too.
00:31We've built in a function that is similar to the human eye.
00:35It continuously monitors the area, and as soon as it detects a source of fire, the system alerts the relevant authorities directly.
00:47But right now, it's still in the test phase, so the information is only sent to the start-up.
00:56These sensors allow us to monitor the condition of the forest and track its development throughout the year.
01:03This means we can create an intelligent map of the forest, one that shows which areas have a high fire risk, where plants and trees are especially dry.
01:13Tunisia is getting less rain overall, and longer periods of drought.
01:21In the last decade, the amount of land scorched by fire was nearly 20 times higher than normal.
01:28Around a third of the country is still forested, and about a million people live in the forests.
01:34Right now, they and local foresters are just left to fight fires as they occur.
01:46Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture hope the AI fire prediction system could provide more protection in the future, especially as the forests are of major importance to Tunisia.
01:56The forest is a real asset for us, both nationally and economically, but also socially and in environmental terms.
02:07With a million people living in this ecosystem, it's our responsibility to guarantee them a safe place to live.
02:15The pilot project with the forestry department is still in its infancy.
02:22If it's successful, the authorities hope to equip larger forest areas with the AI sensors.
02:28This would make the rangers' work easier, and protect the forests in the long term.
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