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Coalition for Rainforest Nations and Brazilian Space Agency (INPE), supported by GTZ and the German Ministry for Environment, conduct the second workshop on advances in forest monitoring and accounting. |
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SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, BRAZIL, Feb. 23 -/E-Wire/-- The Capacity Development for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (CD REDD) program conducted the second of three technical workshops in the series, "Forest Area Change Assessment: The Experience of non-Annex I Countries." The meeting was organized by the Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) and the Brazilian National Space Agency (INPE) with support from the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the German Federal Ministry for Environment. Delegates from 37 countries attended the workshop at INPE headquarters in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. Top level forestry scientists and representatives from all major international and national space agencies provided technical contributions.
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This workshop specifically addressed land cover and land use change detection using remote sensing data. The objective was to introduce experts in developing countries to techniques and scientifically sound practices of detection and tracking of forest land cover changes due to changes in land use (deforestation) and in carbon density (forest degradation, including forest fires).
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The presentations by experts at the workshop demonstrated that remote sensing techniques are advanced and may be considered an operational tool for providing reliable and verifiable monitoring and reporting under the expected UNFCCC-REDD mechanism. Medium resolution data satellites such as Landsat and Cbers currently ensure sufficient time frequency and quality of data required by monitoring systems worldwide. Delegates expressed some reservation toward the Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) and Indian Remote Sensing due to the cost.
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The CfRN and the Indian Forest Service will organize the third workshop, "National Forest Inventory: The Experiences of non-Annex I Countries" in Dehradun, India on April 27-29, 2009. Experts from developing countries and IPCC scientists will present on current forest monitoring and accounting initiatives in non-Annex I nations. GTZ and the German Federal Ministry of the Environment will again provide financial support. For more information about this series of technical workshops, please contact Mr. Paul Chung, Director of Communications at the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, at pchung@rainforestcoalition.org.
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The Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) is an intergovernmental policy group that is developing economic incentives to support environmentally sustainable economic growth through the conservation of tropical rainforests. CfRN is working within the United Nations system to reform the Kyoto Protocol and ensure that future climate change agreements provide "emission reduction" credits to developing countries that voluntarily reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).
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