To address challenges in the forestry sector worldwide, one weekOptical Remote Sensing training workshop on ‘Co-development of Remote SensingProtocols for Forest Carbon Mapping’ under USAID Forest Plus Program started atAmity Campus, Sector 125 Noida.
The aim of the workshop is to develop solutions for sustainableforest land use in India, particularly in REDD + implementation wherein thedesign component of the program focuses on the US-India collaborativescientific and technical research and exchanges that explore methods andapproaches to implement REDD+.
The workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Varghese Paul, Sr.Forestry Consultant, USAID India; Mr. Christopher Kernan, Chief of Party,Forest Plus, USAID; Dr. David Skole, Department of Forestry, Michigan StateUniversity and Prof. BKP Sinha, Advisor, Amity Institute of Natural Resourceand Stable Development. The event witnessed the presence of more than 20forest officers across the globe who will be attending the training workshop.
Welcoming the participants, Dr. BKP Sinha said thatnow-a-days, the main concern of foresters is to protect, maintain and restorehealthy forest ecologies that store carbon. Talking about REDD+, he furtheradded that (REDD +) Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and ForestDegradation stands for countries' efforts to reduce emissions fromdeforestation, forest degradation and foster conservation, sustainablemanagement of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. He apprised thatthere is a growing consensus globally to develop a REDD+ strategy and movetowards full scale implementation.
Briefing the participants about the workshop, Mr. VarghesePaul said that the workshop is organized under the Indo- US BilateralForestry Program. He informed that the program is designed in a way to deployimproved tools, methods and approaches for adopting REDD+ in India. He furtheradded that the forest plus is about sharing expertise in areas of ecosystem,forest eco system management and carbon inventory, wherein the tools and techniquesdeveloped during the program will be deployed in four landscapes includingKarnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. He also mentioned thatbuilding capacity is an important aspect and under this program, protocols andsoftwares would be developed to enable the processing of accurate carbonestimation.
Addressing the gathering, Dr. Christopher Kernan saidthat the training aims at bringing together the expertise of both the nationsto collaboratively address the issues of global forest management. Stating themajor objective of the training, Dr. Karnan added that the program focuses onhow to accurately and credibly measure the forest carbon level and to monitorthe data at national level. He stressed that the training will be a successfulexample of collaboration between two technologically advanced countries tosolve practical problems of forestry and forest management system.
Sharing his views on climate changes, Dr. David Skolesaid “we live in an ever changing globalized world and confront various issueswith reference to climate change, which needs immediate attention. He furtheradded that in the present scenario, foresters have started to concentrate onglobal concerns and have been trying to address them through latest technology.Dr. Skole also mentioned that the contribution of forest ecosystem in climatechange is very important as forestry is part of problem as well as the solutionbecause 25% net emissions of various gases comes from forest areas primarilythrough deforestation. He opined that forest greens is the only way to removecarbon dioxide from air by tree plantation, enhancement of carbon starch inforest and other similar methods.
During the one weekvarious modules will be discussed and practiced including Field Practicum of Land Use and Land Cover Data; Data Pre Processing Models; Vegetation Indices;Field Practicum of Plot Inventory Data; Stratification and Practicum of PlotCarbon to fC Value Relationships.