The Africover project was established in response to national requests for assi-stance in the development of reliable and georeferenced information on natu-ral resources. These data were needed for: early warning, food security, agri-culture, disaster prevention and mana-gement, forest and rangeland monito-ring, environmental planning, watershed catchments management, natural resources, biodiversity studies and climate change modelling. The key success of the initiative was the development of the Multipurpose Africover Database for the Environmental Resources (MADE). The countries involved were:

•    BURUNDI
•    the Democratic Republic of CONGO
•    EGYPT
•    ERITREA
•    KENYA
•    RWANDA
•    SOMALIA
•    SUDAN
•    TANZANIA
•    UGANDA
•    LYBIA
•    MALAWI

The project’s implementation was based on an innovative land cover clas-sification and mapping methodology, which enabled global harmonization of land cover classes while designing the project’s outputs to suit user requirements. This methodology, based on the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) developed by FAO, is used as a standard by a growing number of land cover mapping projects. Africover greatly reinforced national and subregional capacities for the establishment, update and use of land cover maps and spatial data bases. Data generated by the program can be downloaded through the FAO's geo-catalogue GEONETWORK (shortcuts for searching: Africover, Africa Land Cover).

Data generated by the program can be downloaded through the FAO's geo-catalogue GEONETWORK (shortcuts for searching: Africover, Africa Land Cover).