2020 Remote Sensing Survey

Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA)

October 2019 / Issue #2
 

Welcome to the second issue of the progress report
of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 
2020 Remote Sensing Survey

Issue #1


The FAO conducts a Remote Sensing Survey (RSS) as part of the Global Forest Resources Assessment in close collaboration with FAO Members. The objectives of the survey are to build country capacities to use remote sensing for forest monitoring as well as to generate independent, robust and consistent estimates of forest area and its changes over time at global, regional and biome levels.

This progress report is part of a series of communications that provides updates on the data collection process and supports the building of a global network of skilled photo interpreters.
Read more on the FRA 2020 Remote Sensing Survey

The objective of the FRA 2020 remote sensing survey is to assess roughly 430,000 samples by June 2020, engaging more than 800 experts from all over the world in the interpretation of remote sensing imagery.

Indicators of progress

SAMPLES
COLLECTED

COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES

PHOTO INTERPRETERS

Insights from the field: forest clearing for animal husbandry in Tanzania

Near the town of Bagamoyo, in a rural area west of Dar es Salaam, a plot with a clear example of forest loss visible from satellite imagery was visited.

The plot was equally divided in two halves, one half composed of natural forest and the other half showing a clearing for cattle grazing purposes. The local farmers confirmed that the clearing had just taken place the year before.
Landsat for the year 2017.
Sentinel2 for the year 2018. The change is clearly visible.                                                       
DigitalGlobe high resolution image for the year 2018.                                                                      
Participants on the edge between the clearing and the forest.                                             

Data collection workshops

Data collection is conducted through participatory and collaborative approaches, engaging national experts in learning-by-doing training sessions on the latest remote sensing methodology and tools, including the Collect Earth Online platform which FAO has developed in collaboration with NASA and Google.


Next workshops for data collection

  • Paraguay: 4 - 9 November 2019, Asunción
  • South America: 18 - 23 November 2019, Quito, Ecuador
  • Central America: 25 - 30 November 2019, Panama city, Panama
     
 
Participants in the regional workshop for Central East Africa in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Past workshops

Regional

  • East Africa: 29 July - 3 August 2019, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Read more
  • Southern Africa: 8 - 13 July 2019, Maputo, Mozambique
  • South East Asia: 29 October - 2 November 2018, Bangkok, Thailand 
  • Caribbean: 27 - 31 August 2018, Bridgetown, Barbados

National

  • Indonesia: 24 June - 2 July 2019, Kuta, Bali. Read more
  • Brazil: 27 May - 1 June 2019, Belem. Read more 
  • Mexico: 20 - 26 May 2019, Akumal, Quintana Roo. Read more (Spanish)
  • China: 8 - 13 April 2019, Xi’an. Read more
  • India: 11 - 16 March 2019. Dehradun, Uttrakhand. Read more
  • Argentina, Chile and Uruguay: 26 - 31 August 2019, Termas de Reyes

More on FAO's work on forest monitoring

  • Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA)

  • National Forest Monitoring (NFM)

  • Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) 

  • System for earth observations, data access, processing & analysis for land monitoring (SEPAL)

  • Open Foris
 
Photo credits:
©2018 Sentinel-2
©2017 Landsat 8
©2019 CNES/Airbus
©FAO/ Anne Branthomme
©FAO/ Giulio Napolitano



With financial support from
See online version

CONTACT 
For more information visit:  http://www.fao.org/forest-resources-assessment/remote-sensing/fra-2020-remote-sensing-survey/en/

or contact us at: FRA@fao.org


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