[M-GI37] Integration of Earth Observations and Multiple Use for Earth Science and Benefits to Societies - GEO

[MGI37-05] Earth observation data utilization for Global Forest Observation Initiative (GFOI)

*Osamu Ochiai¹ (1.Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)

Keywords:Forest monitoring, Earth observation data, Green house gas

The Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) is an informal partnership to coordinate international support to developing countries on forest monitoring and greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting for the purposes of REDD+ and related forums. Under the Lead Team consisted by Australia, Germany, Norway, UK, US, Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), Food and Agriculuture Organization (FAO) and European Space Agency (ESA), there are many partners actively participating including developing countries and other research and operational institutes. Through collaborative action, GFOI partners seek to accelerate developing country progress in improved forest monitoring and GHG accounting. Partners coordinate their activities under four interlinked GFOI components, which together make it possible to provide a more holistic and coherent package of support to developing countries than any one international partner could provide alone. GFOI is the product of the collaborative actions of its partners. Specifically GFOI activities include: Facilitating country-led assessments of their forest monitoring needs and gaps; Harmonized work planning to address country-identified priorities; Collaborative implementation of forest monitoring support, including: Complementary and consistent capacity building; Development and dissemination of user friendly guidance for REDD+; Supporting the availability and accessibility of remote-sensing data and other key datasets and tools; Coordinating research and development (R&D) activities to fill knowledge gaps, address obstacles to progress and align the work of the research community with developing-country needs; Fostering a diverse network of experts and practitioners to support developing countries in a targeted and cohesive manner; Facilitating information sharing between partners to avoid duplications and overlap. GFOI is guided by a Leads Group and supported by a secretariat known as the GFOI Office. In this paper, the topic mainly focuses on how Earth observation data can be utilized for supporting country needs of the forest monitoring system and related GHG accounting.