Norway, UN sign $4.5m forestry monitoring deal for developing countries

Norway and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) have agreed a NOK 35 million ($4.5m) partnership deal to improve the monitoring of forest resources and changes in developing nations.

The new partnership agreement will enhance countries’ access to earth observation data sources, including satellite imagery, and will develop a platform for processing and interpreting the findings.

Eduardo Rojas-Briales, Assistant Director-General of FAO’s Forestry Department, said: “The new platform offers countries a set of efficient tools for monitoring changes in their forest area and carbon stocks, and for developing sustainable forest management regimes”.

Access to satellite imagery is limited for many developing nations due to poor internet connections, posing a serious challenge for natural resource management.

FAO’s newly developed software is also aimed at overcoming issues caused by outdated these problems by avoiding the need to download images locally and by using a scalable, “cloud-based” supercomputer instead.

All downloading and processing takes place elsewhere, in locations where connections are good and large amounts of computing power is available.

Tiina Vähänen, Deputy Director of FAO’s Forest Assessment, Management and Conservation Division, said: “One of the important components here is the creation of a user-friendly and efficient, cloud-based computing interface. The use of this interface will allow quick access to remote sensing data as well as to high-performance computing facilities, even in countries with limited access to internet.”

The FAO will start implementing the new system in 13 countries over the next 3 years in support of activities under the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD).

The system will mostly be used by forestry technicians to monitor and assess how much carbon forested areas hold, enabling nations to report on and receive compensation for verified emission cuts.