ABACO and Earthworm Foundation together against deforestation of Cavally forest in Ivory Coast

Rome May 10, 2021 – Abaco Group, Europe’s leading player in the provision of software solutions for land resource management and control geared toward precision agriculture and environmental sustainability, is engaged on the front lines with Earthworm Foundation against the deforestation of the Cavally forest, one of the main nature reserves in the Ivory Coast.

The Cavally reserve has an area of 67,593 hectares, but it is at risk due to the illegal encroachment of cocoa plantations.
To combat this phenomenon, Abaco has made its solution, Abaco Farmer, available to Earthworm Foundation: an innovative integrated system that uses satellite observation data (and its automatic tree and green area identification and counting system) to identify deforested areas.

Thanks to the ground-based sensor monitoring system, satellite data can be processed with artificial intelligence algorithms, going on to compose vegetation indices, soil indices, and cropland ownership datasets.
A Reforestation Plan can then be developed to define supply chain tracking activities. Finally, through a specific mobile application, data can be integrated and land trends can be further analyzed.

The goal of the initiative is to support Earthworm Foundation in defining a plan on farmers’ habits and motivations for deforesting protected areas, finding incentives for virtuous farmers to continue producing cocoa sustainably.
“We are proud to be able to contribute our smart agriculture platform to the Cavally reserve reforestation project. Preserving biodiversity is key to strengthening the productivity of our ecosystem, and this depends especially on forest conservation,” commented Antonio Samaritani, CEO of Abaco. “Our app is particularly innovative: it allows us to understand local communities and involve them directly in the process of change.”
“Abaco has enabled us to make the way we collect data from different types of people even more professional.

Getting a better understanding of what farmers are doing to transform agricultural practices and make them more sustainable is an important part of our work,” said Rob McWilliam, director for technical services at Earthworm Foundation. “We hope to adapt this tool and use it in different countries.”

Abaco
Abaco, founded in 1990, has 30 years of experience in developing land management software. Thanks to its vocation for innovation, the company has enabled it to anticipate the needs of an evolving market and become a trusted partner of public and private entities facing the challenge of sustainable development of traceability and productivity on a daily basis.
In particular, Abaco was chosen by the UK government to develop the
platform for managing subsidies under the CAP and will continue to do so during the period of Britain’s exit from the EU.
Today the head office is in Mantua. The company also has offices in Rome and the UK.

Earthworm Foundation
Earthworm Foundation is a nonprofit organization driven by a desire to harmonize the relationship between people and
nature. Most of EWF’s staff work directly on the ground, and the Foundation’s goal, working side by side with member companies and partners, is to make the value chain an engine that can drive economic, environmental and social development.