Deforestation alerts to support forest monitoringproject period: 01 01 2025 to 12 31 2025WAGENINGEN university has developed a proposal in partnership with the USGS and silvacarboncountries to enhance…

This $100,000 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the USGS Research and Data Collection program (CFDA 15.808) supports Wageningen University in the Netherlands to enhance forest monitoring capabilities through advanced satellite technology. The key project activities include:

1. Adapting deforestation alert methods to meet specific country needs and implementing them in open-source platforms like R, SEPAL, and Google Earth Engine to facilitate broader adoption.

2. Holding two international workshops (e.g., in Cambodia and the Solomon Islands) to demonstrate the latest methodologies, encourage local implementation, and collect field data for further validation.

3. Producing guidelines for forest policy experts, decision-makers, and conservation practitioners to help them effectively utilize deforestation alerts to combat deforestation.

The project aims to refine radar-based deforestation alert methodologies and develop comprehensive guidelines for their application, particularly focusing on South America, Africa, and the Pacific Islands. By enhancing real-time forest monitoring capabilities, this initiative will support global forest conservation efforts.

Deforestation alerts to support forest monitoringproject period: 01 01 2025 to 12 31 2025WAGENINGEN university has developed a proposal in partnership with the USGS and silvacarboncountries to enhance forest monitoring capabilities through advanced satellite technology. Thisinitiative seeks to capitalize on recent advances in satellite monitoring, which allow for near-realtimetracking of forest and tree cover loss using both optical and radar imagery. The goal is torefine methodologies for radar-based deforestation alerts and develop comprehensive guidelinesfor their application, particularly focusing on south america, africa, and the pacific islands. The project encompasses several key activities:1. Method development and implementation: this involves adapting deforestation alertmethods to meet specific country needs and implementing these methods in open-sourceplatforms such as r, sepal, and google earth engine. This adaptation aims to facilitatebroader adoption and customization by local users.2. International workshops: two workshops will be held (e.g., in cambodia and thesolomon islands) to demonstrate the latest methodologies, encourage localimplementation, and collect field data for further validation.3. Guideline development: based on the insights gained from the workshops and ongoingmethod development, the project will produce guidelines aimed at forest policy experts, decision-makers, and conservation practitioners. These guidelines will help userseffectively utilize deforestation alerts to combat deforestation. The deliverables of this project include the implementation of open-source methods fordeforestation alerts, the successful execution of international workshops to enhance localcapacities, and the creation of refined guidelines that incorporate use cases from variouscountries to illustrate the practical application of these systems.by enhancing the ability to monitor deforestation in real time, this initiative will significantly aidtropical countries in their efforts to combat deforestation, thereby supporting global forestconservation goals.