Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) Chris Justice, Diane Davies, Didier Devers, Alice Alstatt, Minnie Wong Department of Geography, University of Maryland Compton Tucker, Dan Slayback, NASA GSFC Matt Hansen, South Dakota State University

1.Brief introduction to CARPE 2.Using RS to monitor the Congo Basin Forests 3.Using RS products used to support policy and decision making 4.Building regional capacity to monitor LCLUC and the State of the Forest Overview

Why the Congo Basin? 2 nd largest dense humid tropical forest Species richness and endemism Under increasing pressure from population growth, unsustainable resource use, poor management and other problems related to poverty and political instablity

What is CARPE? A 20 Year regional initiative funded by USAID Strategic Objective: To reduce the rate of forest degradation and loss of biodiversity in the Central African region through increased local, national and regional natural resource management capacity

CARPE Intermediate Results 1.Manage natural resources sustainably 2.Strengthen natural resources governance (institutions, policies, laws) 3.Institutionalize natural resources monitoring

How CARPE fits with international initiatives CARPE Phase I World Summit on Sustainable Development Launch of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership CARPE Phase II 1999 Yaoundé Declaration Associated action plan (Plan de Convergence) Framework for transboundary forest conservation 2003 Presidents initiative on illegal logging

1.Brief introduction to CARPE 2.Using RS to monitor the Congo Basin Forests 3.Using RS products used to support policy and decision making 4.Building regional capacity to monitor LCLUC and the State of the Forest

Dense humid forest Open / degraded forest Wooded savannah Grassland Water with sediment Deep water MODIS 500m surface reflectance composite ( ) map of the Congo Basin Basin Wide Monitoring Using an automated approach

Preliminary Assessment of Intact Forest – used to train Landsat classifications Source: M. Hansen SDSU

Automated procedure applied to two Landsat epochs enabling a direct and spatially explicit comparison of forest cover from circa 1990 to circa 2000 This information will provide a baseline of forest change

SLC off data 5 km A typical example of clouds in the gap fill data making the gap filled data more difficult to interpret and map gap filled data data Critical Issue of High Resolution data coverage Landsat: SLC-off problem - April 2003 On-Going Forest monitoring dependent on continued data availability

1.Brief introduction to CARPE 2.Using RS to monitor the Congo Basin Forests 3.Using RS products used to support policy and decision making 4.Building regional capacity to monitor LCLUC and the State of the Forest

Landscape mosaics: created to provided a natural resource overview map for CBFP partners.

Road Development outside Tri-Sangha National Park

1.Brief introduction to CARPE 2.Using RS to monitor the Congo Basin Forests 3.Using RS products used to support policy and decision making 4.Building regional capacity to monitor LCLUC and the State of the Forest

Building Regional GIS and RS Capacity through OSFAC (Observation par satellite des forêts d’Afrique Centrale) GOFC-GOLD Central Africa Network

OSFAC Overview 1.Office established in Kinshasa 2.Links to the GIS/RS lab at the University of Kinshasa 3.Capacity building 4.Satellite data holding 5.OSFAC website 6.State of the Forest Report

Congo Basin State of the Forest Report Report released Jan 2005 Towards a periodic assessment of the Forest US/EU/NGO participation Next steps CBFP framework: combined efforts of all partners to synthesize data for national and international decision makers Build national capacity to provide assessments

1.Build on current activities - basin wide monitoring - detailed mapping at the landscape level - data dissemination (CARPE Mapper, OSFAC) - capacity building - State of the Forest reporting 2.Secure high resolution multi-source imagery beyond 2003 Next Steps

CARPE: CARPE Mapper: CBFP: Photos courtesy of Allard Blom, WWF and Steve Blake, WCS For more information