A new milestone has been reached in the timeline of the recently launched WorldForest Project:
the project’s official website is now online.
ESA’s flagship initiative on forest monitoring, WorldForest, is led by GAF AG as prime contractor, together with a strong consortium of partners: VITO, DHI, GFZ, NMBU and Caribou.
They are pleased to welcome stakeholders and the wider public to explore its new digital home: https://esa-worldforest.org/.
Addressing the global challenge of deforestation and forest degradation
Although the availability of satellite data has grown rapidly in recent years, many institutions still lack actionable, policy-relevant tools to map and monitor forests effectively. As a result, WorldForest has been tendered by the European Space Agency (ESA) and launched as a three-year initiative to enhance how satellite Earth Observation (EO) supports sustainable forest management worldwide.
It aims to developing innovative methodologies and digital tools to support adaptive and sustainable forest managementand to creating a suite of EO-based tools that address critical forest monitoring needs and that are necessary to deal with the ongoing threat from deforestation, degradation, and mismanagement.
WorldForest will work closely with Early Adopters and developed tools according to their requirements, such as:
- Mapping forest types and structure to support planning, biodiversity protection, and EU forest policies
- Tracking forest loss, degradation, and recovery to inform climate action and REDD+ monitoring.
- Estimating forest carbon stocks to support national GHG inventories and global climate goals.
- Monitoring mangrove forest to support coastal resilience, biodiversity, and blue carbon strategies.
- Going beyond traditional EO product development by combining cutting-edge technical innovation with deep policy alignment and user co-design
The goal of this project is to provide innovative actionable information products / indicators and related tools on a number of key forest parameters by developing novel EO solutions addressing existing information gaps.
WorldForest is set to become a cornerstone in the use of EO technologies for adaptive and sustainable forest management, bridging the gap between science, innovation, and policy.
Discover more at: https://esa-worldforest.org/
