What is forest monitoring?
Forest monitoring systems include measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) functions and aim to produce high-quality, reliable data on forests, including forest-carbon estimates, that are critical to the battle against climate change caused by among others deforestation and degradation of forests.
Why is forest monitoring important?
The need to monitor forests The losses contribute to the increase of global carbon emission, ecosystem goods and services diminish, and remaining biodiversity is decreasing at an alarming rate. While part of the forest loss is policy driven, a significant reduction is caused by illegal activities.
How is deforestation monitored?
Planet uses satellites to capture images of the Earth on a daily basis. These monthly mosaics give users a clear picture of where deforestation is happening and how it has progressed over time. Now, anyone with an internet connection can view these mosaic images via the Global Forest Watch (GFW) website.
What is forest management in simple words?
Forest management is a branch of forestry concerned with overall administrative, legal, economic, and social aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects, such as silviculture, protection, and forest regulation. Management objectives can be for conservation, utilisation, or a mixture of the two.
How is GIS used in forestry?
Remote sensing and GIS are complementary technologies that, when combined, enable improved monitoring, map- ping, and management of forest resources (Franklin 2001). The information that supports forest management is stored primarily in the form of forest inventory databases within a GIS environment.
What is the purpose of forest inventory?
Forest inventory is the systematic collection of data on the forestry resources within a given area. It allows assessment of the current status and lays the ground for analysis and planning, constituting the basis for sustainable forest management.
How destruction of trees affect the soil cover?
Deforestation can have destructive effects on soils. Logging and small-scale removal of trees exposes soil to rain splash which loosens and dislodges soil particles, eroding soil and creating a more impermeable bare surface, which increases runoff.
How much does it cost to protect forests at global level?
The researchers estimated that by 2055 it would cost $2 billion a year to prevent 0.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. A sum of $393 billion would sequester 6 gigatons a year, or the equivalent of emissions from nearly 1.3 billion passenger vehicles driven for a whole year.
How GIS technology will help you in forest protection?
GIS has improved forest inventory data thus enabling foresters to improve forest conditions, plan adequately for the short and long term, estimate the growth of forests, calculate wildlife population, discover forest species, assess potential hazards such as forest fires and discover non-timber products in the forest.
What is the definition of forest health monitoring?
Detection Monitoring – nationally standardized aerial and ground surveys to evaluate status and change in condition of forest ecosystems. Evaluation Monitoring – projects to determine extent, severity, andcauses of undesirable changes in forest health identified through Detection Monitoring.
How long has forest monitoring been in use?
Consequently, much of the corpus of (forest) monitoring concepts and studies has been developed over the past 40 years. This period was punctuated by a series of concurrent events and processes that dictated the environmental agenda and shaped forest monitoring, as it is known today.
Who is on the forest health monitoring team?
One State and one Federal forest health worker from each Mega-Region serves as a representative on the Forest Health Monitoring Management Team. Detection Monitoring – nationally standardized aerial and ground surveys to evaluate status and change in condition of forest ecosystems.
Why do we need a National Forest definition?
The establishment of a national forest definition is essential to monitor changes in forest areas and a prerequisite to develop a consistent system to monitor forest reference emission levels. The establishment of such a monitoring system requires choices on many variables (e.g. mapping unit, forest thresholds, remote sensing techniques).
