The forests of Aotearoa New Zealand are rich in intrinsic value. Our landscape is our history. I will never forget lifting my head and connecting with Tāne Mahuta for the first time. The overwhelming sense of awe I felt was permanently etched in my childhood memory. For as long as I live, I will never lose the sense of reverence I feel when standing among giants in an old-growth forest. If more people could experience this, the world would be a better place.

As awe leads to curiosity, I began a degree in Resource Management from the Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland. This cross-disciplinary degree emphasised addressing socio-economic, cultural and environmental issues through a systems’ science approach. I found the GIS, remote sensing, ecology and organic agriculture courses inspiring and went on to complete a permaculture design certificate. I want to grow most of my food, and try to be more self-sufficient in the future. I think we should all reduce our reliance on supermarkets.

In 2008, I accepted an opportunity as a private-sector geospatial consultant. I spent six years mapping forests and deforestation while coordinating teams to collect field data worldwide. One of our contracts was with the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC). I was charged with leading the national-scale deforestation mapping program in Guyana as part of its Low Carbon Development Strategy in partnership with Norway. It was an excellent opportunity to lead a team and build technical capacity with local public sector GIS analysts in a historically underserved country. Sometimes, international consultants work on projects, the ticks go in the funding boxes and everybody is ‘happy’.. but the potential for deep knowledge transfer is not fully realized. This consulting role meant balancing project management with capacity building and stakeholder engagement, while ensuring my team found fulfillment in their work. To this day, the GFC uses the system to guide decision-making regarding national forest management. Additionally, the Norwegian government and ESRI promote the partnership and evolution of Guyana’s measurement reporting and verification (MRV) system.

In 2015, I was offered a research faculty position at the global land analysis and discovery group within geographical sciences at the University of Maryland. It was a truly perspective-shifting and educational experience to work closely with Professor Matthew Hansen and Research Professor Peter Potapov, who are at the forefront of global large-scale land cover change monitoring. During this time, I completed a second degree in Computer Science. I coordinated and published research in high-impact scientific journals on stratified random sampling-based approaches to mapping forest loss in Peru and Guyana. I helped build a sample interpretation system to map 30 years of deforestation in Indonesia. I began flying UAVs and passed my Part 107 UAS license exam to remotely operate a drone to collect and process lidar data in the forests of The Republic of Congo, Senegal and the United States. After many years of traveling to dozens of countries, mapping agricultural crop expansions in the USA, China and South America, I returned home to New Zealand.

Currently, I am in the early stages of a PhD at the University of Canterbury.

I am always interested in hearing about different opportunities, so get in touch to discuss your project.

Ngā mihi,

Jeff