Background

Clearance of the world's primary tropical forests causes a very significant annual loss of biomass to atmospheric carbon dioxide and the destruction of irretrievable biodiversity. Yet there is huge uncertainty in the estimates of global deforestation rates [1]. Reducing this uncertainty is crucial to assessments of global carbon balance for climate modeling and harnessing political will for change.    The economic motivation for deforestation is strong and any change in behaviour is unlikely unless incentives are given to governments, landowners and communities.   Current efforts to do this through the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism [2] are dependent on reliable, independent estimates of deforestation rates, undistorted by the vested interests of governments and other parties. Reliable mapping of the changes in tropical forest is therefore crucial to implementing this initiative. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images are unaffected by cloud cover and potentially provide an excellent system for measuring forest change in the tropics, as long as they can give sufficiently accurate estimates of deforestation and forest degradation.

Our focus on Sumatra was predicated by the WWF presence and activity there and by the urgent need to act in Indonesia. An article by John Vidal in the Observer newspaper (26th May 2013) highlights this urgency by underlining that the Sumartran forest and its biodiversity will vanish within 20 years at the current rate of deforestation.

Project summary

The objectives and highlights of our work are succinctly described in this summary . Our hope is that the methods we have developed will be further extended to provide the Indonesian and global community with a powerful tool for tracking natural forest cover change as a basis for action on biodiversity conservation and forest carbon management.

References

  1. Achard, F., H. D. Eva, et al. (2002). "Determination of Deforestation Rates of the World's Humid Tropical Forests." Science 297: 999-1002
  2. Parker, C., et al. The Little REDD+ Book. An updated guide to governmental and non-governmental proposals for reducing emissions from Deforestation and degradation. 2009; Available from: Global Canopy
  3. Uryu, Y., Mott C. et al. Deforestation, Forest Degradation, Biodiversity Loss and CO2 Emissions in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia. WWF Indonesia Technical Report, December 2007.

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