Chances are increasing that somebody will hear it.
That according to this report at fastcoexist.com, which tells the fascinating story of an engineer who sought solutions to the problem of illegal logging. “In huge forests around the world, it’s just too easy for someone to cut down trees when they know they won’t get caught. It’s impossible for governments or nonprofits to patrol vast remote areas,” we’re told.

Topher White’s creative answer reportedly utilizes recycled cell phones, a monitoring system of pods equipped with microphones programmed “to recognize distant chainsaws in the middle of the cacophony of usual jungle sounds.” When the solar-powered devices were first tested in Indonesia, White’s team at Rainforest Connection successfully received an alert of illegal activity within three days. The loggers were caught. Says White: “..People can more or less get away with whatever they want the farther they are from any sort of accountability. By putting accountability into the equation, it allowed the situation to more or less resolve itself.”

We’re told that White’s company is now working on a pilot to monitor 7,000 square kilometres of protected rainforest in Cameroon. Confirms White: “We’re covering that area with 30 old cell phones.”