4-8 December 2006

This harmonization workshop is organized by the GLCN and MAR projects of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with the technical support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the financial support of the Government of Italy and the Government of the Netherlands.

The workshop is jointly organized by Environment and Natural Resources Service - SDRN and the Forest Resources Development Service (FORM) of FAO.

This workshop is organized in partner with: Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS)

With the logistical support of the FAO Representative for India.	..
With the financial support of the Government of the Netherlands, the Government of Italy, the Government of Japan, and the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Istituto Agronomico per l'Oltremare (IAO) and the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA).	..

Venue

The workshop will be held in the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, India , form the 4 to the 8 December 2006.

Introduction to GLCN

FAO/UNEP have recently launched the Global Land Cover Network (GLCN) with the objective to improve the availability of global information on land cover and its dynamics, harmonizing land cover mapping and monitoring at national, regional and global levels. GLCN will generate essential data needed for sustainable development, environmental protection, food security and humanitarian programmes of the United Nations, and of other international and national institutions.

The GLCN initiative will bring together national technical staff in the field of Remote Sensing/GIS, Agriculture, Forestry, Pasture/Rangeland, Environment, and Food Security to develop a network at the regional and global scale to adopt the standardization of land cover measurement methods and develop regional and global land cover products. The collaboration will involve not only data providers but also data users and policy-makers.

Introduction to MAR Project

The MAR project (“Strengthening Monitoring, Assessment, and Reporting (MAR) on Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) in Asia”) is organised in FAO Forestry Department in Rome. It is a five year project that was launched in January 2006. It is funded by the Government of Japan and technically and institutionally supported by FAO to contribute directly to the improvement in the sustainable forest management (SFM) regimes in the Asia Pacific region.

The project seeks to establish a functioning national network in each project country. This network would consist of national focal points to various forest related national, regional and international processes. It attempts to institutionalise the process of co-ordination, standardization and harmonization of the national MAR system by promoting frequent technical dialogue among various stakeholders. The project aims to reduce the reporting burden on countries and build up more precise, consistent, and useful national information on forests It plans to organise expert consultations, training workshops and thematic studies at national and regional level to achieve its objectives. The project also aims to enhance efficiency and use of MAR information for better decision-making and formulation of forest policies and planning at the national level.

Goals of the workshop

The scope of the meeting is to review the forest classifications in Asia Pacific countries and initiate discussion and dialogue on their harmonization/standardization. The workshop will provide training to land mapping experts, especially forestry professionals dealing directly with remote sensing based estimation of forest cover and or national forest inventories, in use of the GLCN technologies including the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS). The purpose of the training is to assist in the harmonizing and standardizing the estimation of forest cover using remote sensing among Asian countries. The benefits of LCCS in allowing standardization of mapping legends will be demonstrated and participants will discuss the generation of standard classes for FRA 2010. In addition the workshop will also be an opportunity to train participants on 2D/3D data visualization techniques and information requirements of CBD 2010, like degradation (change in density), deforestation and fragmentation (based on an agreed LCCS classification).

Participating countries (not finalized)

Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, DPR Korea, Laos, Maldives, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan (to be confirmed), Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste (to be confirmed) and Vietnam.

Requirements - participants to send by the 1 October 2006

For the success of the workshop it is fundamental that the GLCN Secretariat receives well in advance of the workshop (and before the 1 October 2006) details of current mapping activities and especially the full descriptions of legend classes being used. These legends will be translated into LCCS before the meeting and will be used in discussions between the participants (details to follow shortly).

Documents and Software

00. Application form (88 KB) 19 August 2006, version 1
01. Invitation letter (62 KB) 19 August 2006, version 2
02. Draft Agenda (96 KB) 19 August 2006, version 6
03. Participants list (will be provided at the workshop)
04. GLCN introduction (276 KB) 8 August 2006
05. Logistics information for participants
06. GLCN translation form (32 KB) 20 August 2006
07. Example of class descriptions required (1,510 KB) 20 August 2006
08. Country profiles (will be provided at the workshop if available)

09. LCCS manual (12,615 KB) 8 August 2006
10. GeoVIS manual (6,218 KB) 8 August 2006
11. FRA 2005 report (6MB) 8 August 2006
12. Forest Assessment and Monitoring (6MB) 10 August 2006

13. LCCS software (138 KB) 8 August 2006

14. GLCN India workshop report (3126 KB) 6 November 2006

Useful Links

Africover project
Global Land Cover Network (GLCN)
Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA)
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS)


Contact Points

GLCN Programme - Environment and Natural Resources Service - SDRN

Mr Reuben Sessa, Programme Officer

MAR Programme - Forest Resources Development Service - FORM

Mr Kailash Govil, Senior Forestry Officer
Ms Federica Urbani, MAR team

© FAO   ::   Global Terrestrial Observing System - GTOS   ::  8 November 2006