Capacity for Copernicus REDD+ and Forest Monitoring Services

Efforts to monitor and map changes of forest areas using Earth Observation (EO) technologies to support decision making in reversing deforestation/degradation has been increasing in the past decade. This has especially gained momentum due to key developments for example in the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) policy process related to countries reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) which requires an assessment of national historical and projected deforestation/degradation rates and statistics. The advent of the European Copernicus Programme’s Sentinel data with their high spatial resolution and revisit time at global, regional and national levels provides an unprecedented volume of data for improved forest monitoring which should be exploited by the European science and EO industry communities. The current Project aims to implement a co-ordination and consolidation of the existing European Capacity for EO based Forest Monitoring with relevant stakeholders, International Agencies, Research Community and Private Sector. A key outcome of the Project would then be a proposed framework for a Copernicus REDD+ Service which can make use of the planned Copernicus Data and Information Access Services (C-DIAS) Platform for improving EO data and product accessibility and functionality to end Users. Furthermore the identification of infrastructural and research gaps for EO Forest Monitoring on different scales (global to local) will result in the definition of future R&D Programmes addressing key gaps and priorities.