The most recent Global Slavery Index estimates that there are 40.3 million people enslaved globally. The UN’s Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goal number 8, section 8.7 specifically refers to the issue of forced labour: ending modern slavery and human trafficking, including child labour, in all forms by 2025. Although there is a global political commitment to ending slavery, one of the biggest barriers to doing so is having reliable and timely, spatially explicit and scalable data on slavery activity. The lack of these data compromises evidence-based action and policy formulation. Thus, to meet the challenge of ending modern slavery new and innovative approaches, with an emphasis on efficient use of resources (including financial) are needed. This paper demonstrates the fundamental role of remote sensing as a source of evidence. We provide an estimate of the number of brick kilns across the ‘Brick Belt’ that runs across south Asia. This is important because these brick kilns are known sites of modern-day slavery. This paper reports the first rigorous estimate of the number of brick kilns present and does so using a robust method that can be easily adopted by key agencies for evidence-based action (i.e. NGOs, etc.) and is based on freely available and accessible remotely sensed data. From this estimate we can not only calculate the scale of the slavery problem in the Brick Belt, but also calculate the impact of slavery beyond that of the enslaved people themselves, on, for example, environmental change and impacts on ecosystem services – this links to other Sustainable Development Goals. As the process of achieving key Sustainable Development Goal targets will show, there are global benefits to ending slavery - this will mean a better world for everyone: safer, greener, more prosperous, and more equal. This is termed here a Freedom Dividend.

最新的全球奴隶制指数估计，全球有4030万人被奴役。联合国的《 2030年可持续发展议程目标8》第8.7节专门提到了强迫劳动问题：到2025年终止一切形式的现代奴隶制和人口贩运，包括一切形式的童工。这样做的最大障碍之一是获取有关奴隶制活动的可靠，及时，空间明确和可扩展的数据。这些数据的缺乏损害了基于证据的行动和政策制定。因此，为了应对结束现代奴隶制的挑战，需要以有效利用资源（包括资金）为重点的新的和创新的方法。本文证明了遥感作为证据来源的基本作用。我们提供了整个南亚“砖带”中的砖窑数量的估算。这很重要，因为这些砖窑是现代奴隶制的已知场所。本文报告了对砖窑数量的第一个严格估计，并使用了一种可靠的方法，该方法可以被关键机构（例如非政府组织等）轻易地采取以证据为基础的行动，并且基于免费和可远程访问的方法。感测到的数据。根据这一估计，我们不仅可以计算砖带中奴隶制问题的规模，还可以计算奴隶制对被奴役者自身的影响，例如对环境变化及其对生态系统服务的影响。其他可持续发展目标。正如实现关键的可持续发展目标的过程将显示的那样，终结奴隶制具有全球利益-这将意味着每个人都有一个更好的世界：更安全，更绿色，更繁荣，更平等。这在这里被称为自由红利。