Montane forests in East Africa play a crucial role as water towers, holding freshwater long enough for it to recharge aquifers that supply local communities. But a recent project from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has also been examining what the communities can do for the water towers. When researchers found there were no consistent data sets on the state of water resources in the Sondu-Miriu River basin, a remote catchment in western Kenya, they decided to test an approach that is rarely used in developing countries, and even more uncommon in the field of hydrology: involving citizens in monitoring and crowdsourcing data collection. Read the full story on Forests News.
