POST EDIT: The solar-powered smartphones protecting the world’s rainforests from deforestation
- With support from the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, American technologist Topher White has installed a network of repurposed phones in vulnerable areas of forest
- These listening devices can detect and report illegal activity to local custodians, as well as live-stream the sounds of wildlife in remote regions
This article is presented in partnership with Rolex.
Saving the Amazon’s giant arapaima fish from extinction; helping people suffering from a broken back to walk again; converting some of the 340 million tonnes of plastic waste churned out globally every year into a new source of sustainable wealth. These projects are just some of the winners of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise (RAE).
Launched in 1976 by then chairman André Heiniger and initially intended as a one-off, the RAE has evolved into a decades-long effort to recognise and support entrepreneurs offering out-of-the-box solutions to some of the toughest challenges facing humanity and the planet. Today, each winner receives a grant of 200,000 Swiss francs (US$215,000) for their work.
Rolex estimates that its 150 RAE laureates have helped improve the lives of no fewer than five million people around the world.