Smithsonian Tree Banding Project in Gabon
The Smithsonian’s Tree Banding Project, a citizen science program targeted at elementary and secondary schools, is a global observatory that collects data on tree growth. Funded by a Microsoft Partners in Learning grant, the Smithsonian worked with schools to set up simple, inexpensive metal bands called dendrometers to monitor, collect data and relay information about the schools’ local trees. In 2013, with the help of Hervé Memiaghe, a Gabonese forest ecologist who traveled to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) to learn to use dendrometers in his research, two middle schools in Gabon, Africa joined other schools around the globe to contribute to the project. Investing new stakeholders in this research helps build capacity for science in Gabon and deepens knowledge of global and local climate patterns for use in future research.