Date

15:30 - 17:00, Tuesday 9 May 2023

Room/Zoom

Austria Room

https://fao.zoom.us/j/98653543560

Meeting ID: 986 5354 3560
Passcode: 88713347

Background

The R&D (Research and Development) Coordination fosters a community of experts who aim to address methodological and technical issues hindering countries’ forest monitoring capacities and therefore greenhouse gases (GHG) accounting efforts. A pivotal element of GFOI’s R&D component is the constant update and refinement of R&D priorities. These priorities are used as input to convene expert meetings, assess the progress of new methods or products towards operationality, provide direct R&D support to countries, and advocate for the funding of key research needs.

The current GFOI R&D priorities were identified in GFOI’s 2021 Plenary and GFOI R&D Online Workshop 2021. Both events brought together research experts on Forest Monitoring to assess current R&D progress, identify knowledge gaps, develop concepts to address these gaps and present a priority list of gaps and actions. In addition, earlier this year these priorities were discussed and reviewed with country representatives in the GFOI R&D Coordination Meeting, as part of the GFOI Capacity Building Summit. The current R&D Priorities are:

1. Degradation and Regrowth Mapping
2. Biomass/EF estimation
3. Near Real Time (NRT) alerting
4. Uncertainty Analysis (incl. integration of NFIs with space-based data)
5. Land Use and GHGs

Goal and objectives
The purpose of this side event is to review each R&D priority and provide a update on recent research achievements and developments. This will be done through discussions with research and country experts from the aforementioned research fields, with the objective of discussing the current needs and evolving opportunities for tropical forest monitoring.

The side event will start with an introduction to the R&D Priorities, followed by one short presentation and discussion per priority, with the exception of Deforestation Alerts, which will have a dedicated side event the following day. After all presentations, a closing discussion will be held, in which we will discuss ways to move forward as R&D Component in relation to the current needs and emerging opportunities within the forest monitoring research community.

Speakers

• Gilberto Câmara - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)
• Natalia Málaga – Wageningen University & Research (WUR)
• Chad Babcock – University of Minnesota
• Viola Heinrich – University of Exeter and German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)

Agenda

• Welcome and introduction to R&D Priorities (F.M. Seifert and D. Requena Suarez)
• R&D Priorities (5 min presentation + 10 min discussion each)
• Degradation and Regrowth Mapping (G. Câmara)
• Biomass/EFs (N. Málaga)
• Uncertainty Analysis (C. Babcock)
• Land Use Mapping and GHGs (V. Heinrich)
• Closing discussion (M. Herold and D. Requena Suarez)