Overview of the project

The project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) under the Value Adding Element program, aims to develop Earth Observation (EO) services to support the FSC certification process.

For this purpose the project will demonstrate a portfolio of validated spaceborne EO services on responsibly managed natural forests and plantations. Part of these EO services will be the estimation of forest biophysical characteristics such as tree height and diameter at breast height, using radar EO sensors. The demonstration of mapping and monitoring will be carried out together with FSC Members in the boreal (Mondi Syktyvkar in Russia), temperate natural forest (Holmen Skog in Sweden) and sub tropical plantations (Sappi in South Africa).
 
A key development will be an Open Source software that will facilitate visualization of remote sensed maps and the extraction and integration of data with forest management information systems. This “Forest Management Toolkit” will be used in the three project areas. Visit the Forest Management Toolkit website >>.

Project objectives

The primary objective is to evaluate how this technology could improve the quality of the data used in the certification process by establishing:

• Can spaceborne EO services be a reliable and cost effective source of key geospatial data required in forest certification? Could it support or replace existing data sources?

• Does this technology also provide forest management with an independent source of accurate and reliable information that improves forest management and certification?

• Are there some forests environments where the benefits of EO might be more obvious (e.g. mega-forest operations or plantations)?

• Could the Forest Management Toolkit aid the uptake of the technology across FSC certificate holders by simplifying data visualisation, data extraction and reporting?

• Could this type of service support other strategic objectives of the FSC (e.g. ecosystem services)?

Expected Outcomes

The key outcomes are:

• Improve the quality of mapping and monitoring  in forest management and certification

• Make certification data and the process more accessible and transparent to stakeholders

• Add rigour and discipline to the certification process by standardising the range and quality of information submitted to CBs

• Reduce costs of certification by improving the efficiency of CBs in the audit process

Resources

The documents below are a useful repository of relevant information on EO and forestry. The resources will be updated as the project progresses.

Detailed reports on the demonstration of satellite mapping:

• ASI FSC Service Delivery Report
  
  
• HolmenSkog Metria Service Delivery Report
  
  
• MondiSYK Sarmap Service Delivery Report
  
  
• Sappi Sarmap Service Delivery Report

Further resources currently available:

• Overview of Current ESA Project – brochure providing an overview of project objectives, list of products, key milestones and deliverables.

• FSC Requirements –outlines why EO services and the Forest Management Toolkit would be of value to FSC and its stakeholders and how FSC will evaluate these services.

• Forest Management Toolkit (FMT) Specification and Service Trial – specifies the Forest Management Toolkit, and how it will facilitate forest certification and management. Summary document only. For the full document, please contact Charles Crosthwaite Eyre

• EO Service Trials Specification – summary of the overall approach to EO service generation and range of EO products to be included in each of the three trials. For the full document, please contact Charles Crosthwaite Eyre

• Forest Management Toolkit (FMT) Development Forum – a link will be provided to a dedicated website, where users and specialists can exchange information regarding the design and development of the FMT and the use of EO.
• FSC Evaluation:  this file contains an analysis of all the validation and evaluation of the EO products tested and the Forest Management Toolkit along with the full evaluation statements by the External Advisory Group (Alan Knight, Tim Synnott and Richard Donovan).  The Executive summary is the FSC evaluation statement
• FSC Recommendation: this file reviews the fundamental drivers for this project and contains the FSC recommendations on the future role of satellite remote sensing in forest certification and the proposed next steps.
• GA Presentation - is the workshop presentation used at the FSC General Assembly, and provides an overview of the project, the drivers for change, the products and the Forest Management Toolkit. Also included at indications on service costs and the statements of the Independent Advisory Group

The following documents are summaries of earlier ESA funded and other project partner reports:

• EO in Support of Corporate Social Responsibility – Forestry Sector, Action Plan for increasing the use of EO across the Sustainable Forest Sector – summary document only

• Timber Volume Estimation in Forestry Plantations: Modelling forest biophysical information from EO data - results from this study, done in conjunction with York Timbers Pvt Ltd in RSA - summary documents only

• Satellite data for planning and follow up of forest Certification – a report, by Metria Geoanalys, prepared for the Swedish National Space Board

Project partners

The project partners are:

• Forest Stewardship Council

• Eyre Consulting Ltd, UK – Eyre Consulting is a market and product development consultancy, with experience in sustainable forestry and forest carbon management, certification and verification and the design and integration of EO solutions. See Eyre Consulting.

• Sarmap SA, Switzerland – A developer of EO software, products, and services with special focus in Digital Elevation Model, Land Motions, Agriculture, Forestry and land cover changes. More information available at Sarmap.

• Metria, Sweden - Services and products include consultancy services in the EO- and GIS-sector, in surveying and mapping, cadastral services, database access via Internet, application and system development. Metria has a wide range of resources for geographic data capture, data processing and refinement, and for system development within geographic IT. See Metria.

• Denis Alder Consulting, UK - Denis Alder is a consultant in forest biometrics and information systems for forest management.  He has published research and contributed a number of practical manuals on growth modelling and permanent sample plots, and has developed numerous specific management models for tropical and boreal plantations and mixed tropical forests.  His work has focussed on improving the sustainability of tropical forest management through the application of basic models and control systems for yield allocation and monitoring, and has worked specifically on the process of bringing forest management up to the level necessary for FSC certification. See Bio-Met.

Background

The project follows two earlier ESA sponsored projects, done in conjunction with FSC, which laid the foundation for this project. The first, in 2005-2007, involved a market survey to establish the need for new and improved geospatial data sources in forestry management and certification and included several demonstration trials carried out in the Congo (CIB), Brazil (Orsa do Brazil) and South Africa (York Timbers).  Based on the output of this project, ESA sponsored a project in 2009 which, for the first time, successfully demonstrated the measurement of the key biophysical characteristics in even age plantations. This enabled estimation of timber volume at compartment level across the whole FMU at a single point in time. 

How can you get involved

• Complete a survey on current operational practice across FSC certificate holders on forest data collection, use of EO systems and GIS. Please download the project survey which only takes a few minutes to complete. The survey will close on 20 November 2010. A review of the responses and data collected will be posted the following month.

• Follow the project and provide active feedback from the perspective of your stakeholder group on this page.

• Actively join in the assessment workshop at the FSC General Assembly in 2011.

You are invited to send views on project goals and outputs to:

• FSC Contact – Hans Joachim Droste or +49 (228) 367 66 17 and Skype achim-droste

• Project Manager - Charles Crosthwaite Eyre or +44 1264 356 900/+44 7730 304 290 and Skype charles.crosthwaite.eyre