Global Observation of Forest Cover and Land Dynamics

Newsletter N˚ 32| May 2015

LAND COVER AND CHANGE
Newsletter of the GOFC-GOLD Land Cover Project Office

Release of the GOFC-GOLD / World Bank FCPF training
materials for REDD+ monitoring and reporting

Content1		23				

GOFC-GOLD has developed aREDD+ curriculum on monitoringand reporting, in partnership with
the World Bank Forest Carbon
Partnership Facility (FCPF). Thetraining curriculum is based on
the REDD Sourcebook and aims
to provide learning and teachingmaterial to enable countries to develop capacities and implement
REDD+ monitoring and reporting.
For more information and to access the training materials go topage 2.

Forest degradation monitoringworkshop for REDD+REDD+ training materials
Survey on data needs for AFO
LU GHG monitoring and reporting

3 Earth Observation Monitor
4 Forest Monitoring activities in		 Ethiopia
4 FCMC REDD+ MRV manual		 Version 2 released
5Calendar

Joint GFOI/GOFC-GOLD R&D Expert Workshop on approaches tomonitoring forest degradation for REDD+The Second R&D Expert Workshop of the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) of theGroup on Earth Observations(GEO) took place on 1-3 October
2014 in Wageningen, The Netherlands. It was organised in collaboration with GOFC-GOLD and
was focused on forest degradation. Workshop objectives were:
Assess the evolving needs fromthe international level and REDD+countries for monitoring forest degradation;• Present and share experiences
on approaches to identify and as-1

Newsletter N˚ 32| 2015

• Synthesize the findings towards improved guidance to countries andREDD+ practitioners.

sess different types of degradation for
REDD+ monitoring using earth observations, ground-based surveys andproxies;• Discuss important gaps and obstacles
and opportunities for future improvements, documented in an action planfor further R&D and demonstration activities;

A synthesis on evolving requirements
for forest degradation monitoring has
been made considering key questions
including country circumstances, financial aspects, capacity building priorities,
timeframe, and priority targets (e.g.,drivers, stratification, and quantitativeindicators). Monitoring needs (groundand remote sensing approaches) totackle activity data and emission factors are discussed, along with mapping
approaches. Operational readiness ofdifferent Earth Observation sensors aresummarized also. Approaches fordesigning national frameworks for
degradation monitoring are presented. The report includes priorities for future work and next steps
for the R&D component of theGFOI.
The report includes observation requests for R&D activities

to the Space Data Coordination
Group (SDCG) from the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites(CEOS). New SAR and optical dataacquisitions are planned to extend
the time-series over already established and still active GEO ForestCarbon Tracking sites and over
newly proposed sites. Optical VeryHigh Spatial Resolution data has

been requested also for calibrationand validation.
The summary report is available on
the GFOI website.

Release of the GOFC-GOLD / World Bank FCPF training materials for REDD+ monitoring and reporting

The GOFC-GOLD Land Cover Project Office is pleased to announce
the release of training materials for
REDD+ monitoring and reporting
developed in partnership with theWorld Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF).
The training materials aim to respond to the need for technical assistance and guidance for countries
to develop REDD+ MRV systems.
The materials were developed
based on existing good practiceguidance on REDD+ related forest
monitoring; in particular on methodological material provided in theGOFC-GOLD Sourcebook.
The materials were developedby building upon the international
GOFC-GOLD expert network andhave undergone an independent review process that resulted in a consolidated set of training materials
that is ready for use.
Intended use and audience
The training materials are intended
for different actors involved in capacity development, such as international agencies, donors, country experts, consultants and researchersand can be used in combination andcomplementary to available guid-2

Newsletter N˚ 32 | 2015

ance documents (i.e. GOFC-GOLD
Sourcebook, GFOI MGD, FCMC MRV
manual).
The materials are self-explanatory andcan also be used by individuals whowish to learn more about a certain
tropic.
To make the materials useful for different levels of knowledge and capacity
needs, each module includes a lecture, concrete country examples andshort tutorials or exercises to respondto the broad scope of capacity needs
ranging from basic knowledge on thetheoretical underpinnings to sharing

practical experiences and understanding implications of monitoring choices
and costs.
The materials are accessible now inEnglish on the website of the GOFCGOLD Land Cover Office. French andSpanish versions are expected to be released in June 2015. You can follow us
on Twitter and Facebook to be informedon this upcoming release.

Figure 1: Set of training modules of the REDD+ curriculumStakeholder survey on data needs for AFOLU GHG monitoring
and reporting
This survey aims to comparatively
analyze the ongoing initiatives ofglobal monitoring systems on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals from the agriculture, forestry
and other land use (AFOLU) sector.
The focus of the survey is on userneeds. The survey supports a study
on the usefulness of various datasets and the importance and utility ofdiverse data characteristics for different types of stakeholder groups. Thisis part of the EU funded research
project: “Strengthening Independent
Monitoring of GHG Emissions fromLand Activities for Publishing, Comparing and Reconciling Estimates”,
which is a collaboration of Oeko Institut, Wageningen University, IIASA andCIFOR, under project N° CLIMA.A.2/ETU/2014/0008.
Your input in this survey can help us define the different stakeholder views andneeds. This will enable us to derive recommendations for more efficient andeffective monitoring systems which often need to be tailored to multiple uses,
stakeholders and users. We estimatethat it will take you approximately 20
minutes to complete the survey.

The survey can be accessed via this link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/independent_monitoringYour participation in the survey is greatly
appreciated and we are looking forward
to your response, by June 15 prefereably. Your responses will be kept strictlyconfidential and will only be used for thepurpose of this research project.
If you have any questions or technicaldifficulties accessing or submitting thesurvey, please contact Erika Romijn
from Wageningen University at: erika.
romijn@wur.nl.

Earth Observation Monitor: Interoperable time-series tools andweb services for local land monitoring
Access to global Earth Observation
time-series data is a complex task.
Scientists and other users have to
conduct a set of processing commands to get data for a specific study
area. However, when data is available using programming languages,it is possible to automate time-series
data access, analysis, and monitoring tasks. The Google Earth Engine(GEE) brings two necessary requirements together: 1) an archive of multisource Earth Observation data (e.g.,Landsat, MODIS), and 2) anapplication programming interface (API) not only for data
access, but also for on-thefly data processing and algorithm execution within theGoogle server infrastructure.
The Earth Observation Monitor makes use of the GEEAPI to provide global daily tobi-weekly data for vegetation
time-series access, analysis,and monitoring. Until now
GEE is being used to provide
global data access availability to the MODIS vegetation
product. Furthermore theintegration of Landsat data
is being evaluated at themoment. An open-source
Python-package(pyEOM)is being developed to makethe automated time-series data accesstools available for other users beyond
the provided web services. This tool canbe used with multiple data sources likeNASA LPDAAC and NSIDC DAAC for
MODIS data and Google Earth Engine
for specific MODIS products and Landsat data. Global data access combinedwith time-series analysis tools can leadto a wide range of new applications,e.g., for land change monitoring, land
disturbance classifications based on
expert knowledge, that can be used

on a global coverage. As an example,
the EOM web processing capabilities
are being integrated in several African
Earth observation initiatives, such as foranalyzing deforestation history in tropical
Afromontane forests in Nigeria (Figure 1)
within the Nigerian Montane Forest Project. Additionally, a fully-automated identification of selected change processes(logging, fire events, and storm damage)in Boreal forest ecosystems was implemented using a random forest machinelearning based classification framework.

Figure 2: Backtracking of Afromontane forest loss through population increase and land use pressure in the Mambilla plateau region in Nigeria using MODIS/Landsat data and EOM-implemented BFAST method for chance event(breakpoint) detection.

3Newsletter N˚ 32 | 2015

High-resolution satellite imagery improves forest monitoring inEthiopia
BlackBridge, GIZ, and RSS GmbHhave come together to bring REDD+
MRV capabilities to Ethiopia.
BlackBridge and Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH (RSS), both experts insatellite imagery and remote sensing,have been working with the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) since 2013 on a project to support Ethiopia’s expansion oftechnical capabilities for earth observation within its national institutions.
The Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
has partly financed the project throughthe develoPPP.de Programme.
According to reports by The World
Bank, forests make up roughly twelve
percent of Ethiopia’s landscape. This
number is significantly smaller than inprevious decades and is decreasing
each year as urbanization and the demand for resources increase. To pre-vent the remaining forests from diminishing further, the Ministries of Forestand Environment use satellite imagery
to monitor and manage these resources.
Until now, monitoring forests in Ethiopia,
especially smaller wooded areas has
proven difficult. Ministries have beenusing Landsat imagery, which cannot
provide the level of detail needed to accurately depict forest change.
BlackBridge, together with GIZ and RSS
have supplied Ethiopian forest specialists with 30,000 square kilometers ofhigh-resolution RapidEye satellite imagery and a set of baseline forest maps.
With this higher-resolution imagery,twelve land-cover classes are now
identifiable, including forest, plantation,woodland, scrubland, crop, wetland,
and urban areas.
To help integrate the new imagery into
the workflows of Ethiopian foresters,
Blackbridge, GIZ, and RSS have completed three workshops to date, with afourth scheduled for early autumnof 2015. Eighteen Ethiopian forest
authorities and five forest authorities from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania,
Zambia, and Ghana attended the lastworkshop. Attendees have the opportunity to learn about the benefitsof using high-resolution satellite data
for measuring, reporting, and verifying forest cover in the context of theREDD+ MRV program.
This joint venture also provides theMinistries of Forestry and Environment with the processing chains andprocessing environment necessaryfor extracting information from the imagery.
At the conclusion of the final workshop, Ethiopia will have the trained
specialists, technical infrastructure,and initial data needed to apply forfunds under the REDD+ program.

Release of REDD+ Measurement, Reporting and Verification(MRV) Manual, Version 2.0
The USAID-funded Forest Carbon,
Markets and Communities (FCMC)
program recently released version 2.0of the FCMC REDD+ MRV Manual.
This Manual is intended for use bymultiple audiences including thosetasked with the overall development,including planning and design, of an
MRV system, as well as managers,
analysts, and technicians involved indeveloping a specific component ofthe system. The Manual, first released
at COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, hasbeen updated in version 2.0 to captureuser feedback and key REDD+ decisions that have occurred post-releaseof version 1. Technical modifications
have also been made throughout.
The Manual is divided into six main
chapters that provide a discussion of
the main elements of an MRV system
including: national arrangements required by the UNFCCC (Chapter 2);
estimating greenhouse gas emissions
and removals (Chapter 3); Field-based
inventories (Chapter 4); remote sensing of land cover change (Chapter 5);

4

Newsletter N˚ 32 | 2015

and reporting and verification processes (Chapter 6). In addition, three thematic reviews are included to provide
an overview of the history of REDD+
under the UNFCCC, as well as considerations for both community-based
and near real-time monitoring activities.
The Manual complements other available resources focused on REDD+
MRV and readers are encouraged
to utilize all available resources.

Version 2.0 of the Manual is accompanied by a Summary for Policymakers, which introduces key MRVconcepts and focuses on essential
and fundamental components of an
MRV system. An Overview, designed
to accompany the Manual, has also
been developed. The Overview captures the main elements of developing an MRV system with less technical detail than is included in the full
Manual chapters, but is more com-prehensive than the Summary for Policymakers. The Overview also includes
a proposed checklist for use by countries to facilitate tracking of progress
toward such a system within a country.
Version 2.0 of the Manual will also betranslated to both French and Spanish toincrease the accessibility of this resource.
All elements are currently available fromthe FCMC program page, http://www.
fcmcglobal.org/mrvmanual.html, Conservation International, http://www.conservation.org/publications/Documents/
CI_REDD-MRV-Manual.pdf, a partner
on the FCMC program, and will shortly

be available from the following Natural Resources Management & Development Portal, http://www.rmportal.
net/projects/fcmc/task-orders/mrv

Calendar of Upcoming Events
EventDateVenue

Information

Sentinel-3 for Science Workshop

June 2-5
2015

Venice, Italy

http://seom.esa.int/S3forScience2015/

ISPRS/GEO/ICA Workshop on
Trust in Spatial Data and Validation of Global Land Cover
Products

June 5-7
2015

Shanghai, China

http://celiang.tongji.edu.cn/trust2015/Home.html

GOFC-GOLD / ESA / Worldbank side event at UNFCCCSBSTA: “REDD+ training
materials and support for forest
monitoring and MRV”

June 82015

Bonn, Germany

https://seors.unfccc.int/
seors/reports/events_list.
html?session_id=SB42

International Workshop on
Supporting Future Earth with
Global Geo-information

June 9-10
2015

Beijing,China

http://ngcc.sbsm.gov.cn/article/en/GLC2015/

Our Common Future Under
Climate Change Conference

July 7-10
20115

Paris, France

http://www.commonfutureparis2015.org/

SCERIN-3 Capacity Building
Workshop

July 13-17
2015

Brasov, Romania

http://www.csebr.cz/scerin2015/

IEEE IGARSS Conference

July 26-31
2015

Milano, Italy

http://www.igarss2015.org/

ESA Workshop on Mapping
Urban Areas from Space

November 4-5
2015

Frascati, Italy

http://due.esrin.esa.int/muas2015/

UNFCCC COP 21

Nov. 30 - Dec. 11
2015

Paris, France

http://www.cop21paris.org/

Table 1: Upcoming events

Acknowledgements
The GOFC-GOLD LC PO thanks Dr. Christian Hüttich (University Jena, Germany) for providing information on the Earth
Observation Monitor initiative, and Jenny Hewson (Conservation International, USA) for providing information on theFCMC REDD+ MRV Manual.

5Newsletter N˚ 32 | 2015

IM PR IN T

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Global Observation of Forest Cover and Land Dynamics

6Newsletter N˚ 32 | 2015

Prepared by
B. Mora & M. Herold
Tel: +31 (0) 3.17.48.38.89
Fax: +31 (0) 3.17.41.90.00
brice.mora@wur.nl
http://www.gofcgold.wur.nl

GOFC-GOLDLand Cover Project Office
Wageningen UR
Centre for Geo-InformationP.O. Box 47
6700 AA Wageningen (Netherlands)