Description: CyberTracker was developed in 1997 to equip non-literate trackers in South Africa with technology to allow them to track and record wildlife data. The technology allowed trackers to get jobs in ecotourism, anti-poaching, wildlife monitoring and scientific research. Today, CyberTracker continues to offer free software for icon-based data collection, analysis and visualization on Smartphones for any type of GPS field data collection, and allows indigenous knowledge to be combined with advanced computer and satellite technology. While originally developed for wildlife research and used in protected areas around the world, CyberTracker has also been used in a variety of sectors, including education, agriculture, and forestry, healthcare, and crime prevention. Application in the forestry sector include the World Agroforestry Centre’s Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF), for which CyberTracker has been used in a total of 190 sites (about 30,000 plots) in 30 countries around the world. CyberTracker has also already been used for monitoring forests for REDD by communities, and digital forms for biomass inventory are available for download.

Key features of CyberTracker:

• Icon interface: Provides easy accessibility to the user irrespective of literacy.
• Moving map functionality: Allows user to pinpoint his/her location on a topographical map or aerial photograph.
• Built-in camera: User can document and geotag visual elements and send photo to others immediately.
• Thresholds of Potential Concern: Thresholds of acceptable change in the environment can be set so that users are alerted if those thresholds have potential to be exceeded.

Users collect data in CyberTracker using a sequence of screens, which are predesigned for the particular application the technology is being used for. Local knowledge of forest and other resources held by communities is therefore very important in designed the CyberTracker interface. Different types of data can be collected within one CyberTracker screen, so that as much information as possible can be collected about one particular tree for example. Data collection designers must install software on a laptop or computer in order to create the digital forms that are used on mobile devices in the field, and the design must incorporate the screen size of the mobile device to be used. While new customizations are highly supported by CyberTracker, existing digital forms are available and provide an easy option for certain applications.