A Clearer Picture of Tropical Carbon

Tropical forests, alongside boreal forests and wetlands, are prime ecosystems for storing carbon. Now, researchers have created a new high-resolution map of carbon storage in tropical forests that could play an important role in effective forest management

By DYLAN WALSH | The New York Times | March 27, 2012

Woods Hole Research CenterAbove-ground biomass in southern Asia and Oceania, based on data gathered by laser satellite technology. Dark green indicates the highest potential for carbon storage.

Read more... Sphere: Related Content

Forest height affects climate change

Map of forest height helps to understand role of forests in climate change

Disaster News Network | February 21, 2012

Read more... Sphere: Related Content

SPC and Fiji Cooperate to Map Forest Cover

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) has announced a collaboration with Fiji's Department of Forestry to increase capacity in the use of high resolution satellite images to map land and forest cover in the country. The programme will focus on classifying forest types in Drawa, a 6,400 hectare area of indigenous forest on Vanua Levu

Climate Policy & Practice | 8 February 2012

Read more... Sphere: Related Content

Industrial palm oil production expands at expense of rainforests in Peru

Intensive palm oil production is expanding at the expense of biolologically-rich lowland rainforests in the Peruvian Amazon, reports a study published in Environmental Research Letters

mongabay.com | January 10, 2012

Read more... Sphere: Related Content

Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry amends moratorium map and excludes oil palm concession issued in breach of moratorium

In August 2011, Irwandi Yusuf, governor of Aceh, signed a permit for a palm oil concession in the Tripa Peat Swamp, apparently in breach of the moratorium on new forest concessions under the Indonesia-Norway US$1 billion REDD deal

By Chris Lang | REDD-Monitor | 14th December 2011

Read more... Sphere: Related Content

Breakthrough technology enables 3D mapping of rainforests at the level of individual trees

High above the Amazon rainforest in Peru, a team of scientists and technicians is conducting an ambitious experiment: a biological survey of a never-before-explored tract of remote and inaccessible cloud forest. They are doing so using an advanced system that enables them to map the three-dimensional physical structure of the forest as well as its chemical and optical properties

Rhett A. Butler | mongabay.com | October 24, 2011

This image shows a small deforested patch with individual trees, colored by height. The densest biomass is red, while deforested areas — with low biomas — are shades of blue. Image courtesy of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory. Click picture to enlarge.

Read more... Sphere: Related Content

RI maps forests with satellite images

Indonesia is intensifying efforts to map forest areas nationwide using remote-sensing satellite technology, to maximize on their role in absorbing greenhouse gas emissions, a seminar has heard

Desy Nurhayati | The Jakarta Post | March 11, 2010

The announcement was made Wednesday at the start of the three-day symposium of the 4th Asia-Pacific Global on Earth Observation System in Bali. Attending the event are delegations from 26 member states of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO).

The forest observations, being conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan), is aimed at collecting data on forest coverage and monitoring changes in the areas, including pinpointing fire hot spots.

Lapan remote-sensing unit deputy head Nur Hidayat said Indonesia had teamed up with Australia for the project.

“We’re looking to reduce the number of forest and peatland fires by 20 percent a year, so we’re continuously observing forests using remote-sensing satellite technology,” he said.

“The number of hot spots can now be monitored in real time.

“We’re intensifying our annual monitoring of forests to collect reliable and accurate data that can be used to calculate the forest’s capacity to absorb carbon emissions.”

Data collected by the agency will be used to draft a recommendation for follow-up action from other agencies, Hidayat said.

Indonesia is targeting to cut carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, or 2.95 gigatons of CO2, 14 percent of it to come from the forestry sector.

The country’s total forest cover is 98.5 million hectares, according to Forestry Ministry estimates. Islands with the highest coverage include Papua, which is 33 percent forest, and Kalimantan with 27.8 percent.

Lapan liaison director Ratih Dewanti Dimyati said the partnership with Australia was aimed at providing data on land changes for Indonesia’s National Carbon Accounting System (INCAS).

INCAS is a joint forest carbon partnership program between the two countries to support Indonesia in providing significant and cost-effective reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by reducing deforestation, encouraging reforestation and promoting sustainable forest management.
“We’re currently in the process of updating the previous data on forest areas nationwide, and we expect to complete it by the end of this year,” she said.

“However, because this is still the early stage of the observation, we can’t say conclusively if there has been any increase in deforestation or the number of hot spots.”

The agency’s will crosscheck its findings with those from the Australian team, to ensure the accuracy.
Forest fires are common across the country, particularly in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

The number of hot spots in Central Kalimantan has fluctuated wildly over the past 13 years, says the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Indonesia.

In 2009, the figure was 4,860, up from 1,827 in the previous year and 2,793 in 2007.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved

Read more... Sphere: Related Content