B

ogor will host the first leg of a series of international workshops on the environment, an organizing committee revealed over the weekend.

Eric van Valkengoed, the chief executive of the workshop in Indonesia, said that the workshop on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation — Fast Logging Assessment and Monitoring Environment (REDD-FLAME) would be taking place at the International Convention Center of the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB-ICC), on Jan. 31.

The project, he said, was part of the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development for collaborative research on space science (FP7-SPACE) funded by the European Commission. The workshops would also be held in Mozambique in February and then in Brazil in March.

“The REDD-FLAME project has designed and demonstrated a system capable of monitoring tropical and subtropical forests using high-resolution, cloud-penetrating radar data and optical imagery acquired by satellites. By focusing on the early detection of logging activities, the system provides the means to quickly identify the first signs of deforestation,” said van Valkengoed of the Netherlands-based TerraSphere Imaging & GIS B.V.

According to him, the system has been developed in collaboration with authorities in countries on three continents in an effort to build lasting partnerships and share expertise.

Test sites, including the one in Mawas, Central Kalimantan, have been chosen to represent a variety of forest types and deforestation issues, and thus prove the system’s versatility.

“As the two-year project draws to a close, this one-day workshop will serve to showcase the main results of the EC-funded FP7-SPACE project, REDD-FLAME, and make recommendations for its operational implementation,” van Valkengoed said, adding that the presentation would demonstrate how the system could be integrated into a national forest monitoring system as well as into future REDD projects in Indonesia.

The key speakers in the workshop will include forest inventory expert Dirk H. Hoekman of Wageningen University, BS Barkah from Balikpapan Orangutan Survival Foundation, R. Verhoeven of software developer Savision BV and J. Franke of environmental monitoring provider RSS GmbH.