Forests provide us with oxygen, shelter, jobs, water, nourishment and fuel.
Our services identify, monitor and support better management of forests worldwide.
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In Honduras 87 percent of its territory are designated for forestry, however, only 58 percent (or 6.4 million hectares) currently have forest cover. On average 54 000 hectares of forest are lost each year due to clearing of forests for agriculture, cattle ranching, industry and human settlements, especially urban expansion.
Earth observation-based assessment of land use changes and deforestation rates can support the assessment of forest clearing and the examination of causal relationships between deforestation and tenure security.
Liberia is covered in natural forests which sustain communities and contribute to the national economy. However, the country is recording heavy loss of forest areas, due to various challenges, such as a rapidly growing population.
To prevent the forest loss, the forestry sector has been reformed and Liberia is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is committed to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). REDD+ aims to create a financial
value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to development.
Earth observation based mapping of land cover/land use for entire Liberia, with emphasis on forest cover provided valuable information to support the national REDD strategy for sustainable management of forests.
The Copernicus High Resolution Layer Tree Cover Density product offers information on the percentage of tree cover in a given area. With its three-year update cycle and high-resolution data, this product is one of best publicly available European tree cover maps.
GeoVille produced national coverages throughout Europe for the 2015 assessment cycle.
Miombo woodlands in sub-Saharan Africa support the livelihoods of millions of rural and urban inhabitants by providing wood and non-wood products across eastern and southern Africa. However, there is a continued decline in woodland cover in all the Miombo countries. This loss and degradation are driven by land clearing for agriculture, selective timber harvesting, and wood extraction for energy.
The degradation of forest areas, such as in the Miombo woodlands, also has a strong impact on carbon sequestration and storage. The Miombo Network has identified a need of regional policies related to sustainable management of these woodlands. The World bank is supporting the assessment of forestry policies and is analysing the impact of this forest loss.
Through the ESA “Global Development Assistance (GDA) Climate Resilience” project, the World Bank, has been provided an EO-based wall-to-wall Above Ground Biomass (AGB) estimate for the woodlands in Northern Mozambique to support and improve carbon assessments for monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV).
Product examples include:
Above ground biomass (AGB)
Forest degradation
Forest condition / status
Ecosystem mapping and monitoring
Forest resources are important for improving rural community well-being and alleviating the impacts of poverty. The International Union for Conservation (IUCN) commissioned GeoVille to establish a satellite-based method for assessing forest-dependent communities with respect to climate change, resource depletion and deforestation. GeoVille developed the ‘Forest Community Fingerprint’ as a cost-effective tool to more accurately estimate the human-nature dependency structure in these forest ecosystems and to document drivers of sustainability and efficiency of interactions between communities and their surrounding resources. The system statistically links in-situ surveys with geospatial Earth observation data to predict relationships between forest dependency and the community’s geographic and demographic context.
In the long run, the developed Earth observation capacity will support IUCN to enable an early identification of forest-dependent communities at risk of reduced adaptive capacity to climate change.
“The use of EO provided the means for IUCN to identify forest change and to help add another layer of information to our ‘basket’ regarding forest use and resource depletion. This information is especially critical in remote, difficult-to-reach geographies.”
Richard Aishton, IUCN – ENPI FLEG
GeoVille developed and applied state-of-the art optical/SAR based mangrove mapping and monitoring service world-wide.
As a prominent reference example, GlobWetland Africa provided users with an open-source software toolbox for the end-to-end processing of spatial and temporal indicators on wetland status and trends from local to national scales. The ultimate goal was to support African stakeholders with the capacity to better fulfill their commitments and obligations towards the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
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