Global Forest Observations Initiative - GFOI Doug Muchoney - Chair UK, September 2016

Climate Change and Forests Deforestation and forest degradation globally are significant sources of CO2 (nearly 20% to global total emissions) An important part of countries efforts to protect forests and reduce these emissions countries need to be able to monitor what is happening in their forests Combining satellite data with ground based information and possibly other remote sensing provides a cost effective way of doing this in a timely way Internationally countries have to report their emissions and removals from forests as: Part of their national communications to the UNFCCC including all land not just forests If they take part in REDD+

GFOI Aims to support countries in developing sustainable national forest monitoring & MRV systems to meet their individual needs Works in collaboration with other international organisations and programmes Its current focus is on supporting REDD+ implementation Is working with CEOS to ensure the sustained, freely available, supply of core data streams with world-wide coverage by 2016 Is considering how to address additional data needs and services including processing and delivery Is also supporting countries in the use of this data through capacity building, methodological advice and addressing R&D needs

Why GFOI? There are many organisations supporting the implementation of REDD+ (UNREDD, FAO, World Bank …) GFOI’s unique features are its links to space agencies and their commitment to acquire data needed for annual forest monitoring Participation by many experts in Earth Observation, organisations involved in REDD+ and developing countries GFOI has: Active support and involvement of 13 space agencies Active involvement of key REDD+ and GHG institutions: UNFCCC, FAO, WB, IPCC Explicit endorsement by 90 countries (GEO) and 67 international organisations Active involvement of developing country participants Why GFOI? …

GFOI Approach Wall-to-wall monitoring Consistency with UNFCCC and IPCC Captures leakage Capture small changes Grund based data for emission factors and validation Consistency with UNFCCC and IPCC Follow IPCC guidelines Vital for reporting of REDD+ and to UNFCCC Maps 5 REDD+ categories onto IPCC methods Affordable and Practical Based on medium resolution data (10-30m) Can use higher resolution data if needed Co-operation with Partners Coordination of capacity development GOFC-GOLD IPCC and UNFCCC

GFOI Components Space Data Capacity Building Methods and Guidance GFOI ensures the acquisition of core satellite data Capacity Building GFOI provides capacity building in coordination with others such as UN-REDD. It supports the use of satellite and ground data to monitor forests, and estimate GHGs. Methods and Guidance Report guiding the use of Satellite and Ground data for national forest monitoring and estimation of carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions. Research and Development Identifying and promoting R&D needed for practical, global implementation of National Forest Monitoring GFOI Office Coordination and Management

Global Forest Observations Initiative GFOI Global Forest Observations Initiative Operational NFMS Development of new methods and approaches Complete Methodologies for all 5 REDD+ activities Assured delivery of free/affordable remote sensing Capacity for analysis of remote sensing and ground data Combining ground and remote sensing for emission estimation Ground based measurement system Institutional arrangements and long-term resources and capacity

GFOI Partners Founded under Group on Earth Observations (GEO) in 2011 • First work plan was 2012-13. • Operational ever since. Lead partners: Australia, Norway, USA, FAO & CEOS Experts from UNFCCC, IPCC, World Bank FCPF, universities, technical and policy experts and others Open to new partners. MRV. This document underlies GFOI all activities from defining minimum space data needs to methodological gaps that need to be filled with R&D.

Methods and Guidance Logical and systematic guide for countries to follow in developing their forest monitoring systems Improve accessibility of technical data: link to IPCC, GPG, UNFCCC requirements and other technical docs V1 published in January 2014, V2 in June 2016 New web application REDDcompass available www.gfoi.org/reddcompass

Target Audience: MGD Space Agencies National Negotiators Senior Technical Implementers National Negotiators International Organisations Space Agencies Target Audience:

Capacity Building Interface of GFOI with implementing countries Jointly implemented by US SilvaCarbon and UNREDD-FAO Builds upon their existing work programmes and country partnerships Uses MGD & REDDcompass as core syllabus Workshops, one-on-one training, in-country experts, training trainers, webinars and open sources tools.

R&D Component Coordinate global R&D activities on forest monitoring, to help meet country needs Pioritising RS research topics for the use in NFMS Priorities topics include: forest degradation, mapping, forest types, interoperability, uncertainty, data and, model integration etc. Lead by GOFC-GOLD with funding from ESA.

GFOI R&D Programme Methods and Guidance only includes operational methods and approaches. Future versions will incorporate new approaches Review of on-going R&D identifies methods that are operational, and those that need further development R&D Workshops to discuss major topics, on-going work and how to promote further development Identifying and provision of space data to meet R&D needs is under discussion by CEOS Identification and discussions with other organisations to support identified R&D needs Undertaken in collaboration with GOFC-GOLD

www.gfoi.org

Thank you