Initiative seeks to reduce risk within the African pastoral sector

SAN FRANCISCO – December 12 – Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, today announced a new contract with ZEP-RE, a reinsurance company based in Nairobi, Kenya, to leverage Planet’s Basemaps products to enhance drought risk protection in the Horn of Africa (HOA).

ZEP-RE aims to leverage PlanetScope 3–5-meter resolution imagery through Planet’s analysis-ready, Surface Reflectance Basemaps products. Using pre-processed Basemaps, Planet will deliver Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series data to measure vegetation health for an area of more than 600,000 km2 of Eastern Africa. The reinsurance company will also be utilizing Planet data as their independent calculation agent to quantify conditions and provide metrics to measure drought. With this data they will further develop their drought index program and scale their risk calculation capabilities.

Working with Planet, ZEP-RE aims to expand the insurance program to support over 250,000 pastoralists in the HOA. In the process, they seek to generate a drought index that can be customized to locations to determine payout amounts, generate premium rates, and enable faster claims.

“At Planet, we are excited to be contributing data to support the livelihoods of pastoral farmers in Africa with ZEP-RE. We believe our data is a powerful and unique source of information for agricultural index insurance, and that it can bring value to vulnerable communities in their daily lives,” said Kevin Weil, President of Product & Business at Planet.

Along the grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa, drought is a persistent threat to economies and livelihoods. ZEP-RE is the implementing agent of a regional project, DRIVE, intending to enhance pastoralists’ access to financial services for drought risk mitigation, include them in the value chains, and facilitate the livestock trade. ZEP-RE will be leveraging Planet’s satellite data products to execute the risk protection