An Introduction into AFoCO's work in Asia

A digital story showcasing forest protection work

Asian Forest Cooperation Organization

An Introduction into AFoCO's work in Asia

Partner:

Asian Forest Cooperation Organization

Project type:

Interactive map

Scope:

Editorial writing
Data visualisation
Design
Development
Research

See it live

Forests, especially those in Asia, play an essential role in mitigating climate change. Unfortunately, they remain highly vulnerable to climate change and devastation, due to socio-economic growth pressures and natural disasters. The overall primary forest area of the region—forests mostly undisturbed by human activities—have declined drastically over the past decade.

About the project

A digital story detailing the importance of Asia’s forests in mitigating the impacts of climate change and AFoCO’s work over the years.

The challenge

Scarce and outdated data

The biggest challenge for this project was creating the relevant map layers for the main map. More specifically, we had to create a layer of current various forest zones across the world, but the data was difficult to obtain. The geospatial datasets we needed were often outdated, and the more recent data were mainly images.

Layering multiple datasets into an engaging story

AFoCO had several sets of data that they wanted to present through this digital story—some of them were collected by non-profits and, but the majority needed to be downloaded from online open sources. Our task was to locate datasets, visualise them neatly, and ensure that the visualisations flowed well with the narrative and text of the story. Sorting through and analysing the data to ensure that they were visualised in the most efficient manner was also a complicated task.

Our creative solution

We created our own map based on older spatial datasets and more recent images of current forest zones.

Despite the challenges, we located open sources of relevant forest data. We designed simple but efficient data visualisations—keeping each visualisation to one key message, making sure that chart elements such as titles and legends were clear, and adding a layer of interactivity for the reader to explore additional data. To ensure that the narrative flowed well, we storyboarded the digital content extensively with AFoCO before inputting the text into the code.

Our partners

The Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) is a treaty-based intergovernmental organization that promotes cooperation towards achieving the shared SDGs and regional and global forestry objectives.

You’ve done the work. Now let us make it exceptional.