First Peru MRV Regional Training Workshop
The national component is to build capacity in national-level forest monitoring using optical satellite data. This is done in coordination with the US Government SilvaCarbon program and in partnership with the University of Maryland’s (UMD) Geographical Sciences Department. The regional component is to conduct a series of training workshops for selected staff from regional governments and their supporting organizations on aspects of satellite monitoring in the context of MRV.
This first workshop was held in partnership with the Ministry of Environment in Peru (MINAM), who coordinated with regional governments and selected invitees from San Martin, Madre de Dios, Loreto and Cuzco. Fundamental concepts of MRV that are most relevant to forest monitoring within a MRV system were reviewed, as well as remote sensing basics and common approaches to satellite data analysis for forest monitoring. This was the first of three such workshops, the remaining to be conducted over the coming three months.
The workshop was productive—vital information was presented to the regional participants and valuable discussions occurred. In addition, a brief review of FCMC was presented, including a summary of the FCMC MRV Manual and feedback forms were provided for the audience. The workshop also allowed time for discussion between the regional and national governmental attendees to review draft forest-monitoring products and contribute to validation analyses and explanations of findings of the monitoring assessments.
Peru has made great progress in monitoring national forest cover and change, in part due to the FCMC-SilvaCarbon support that has provided training, assistance in study design, problem solving, image interpretation and design and implementation of a validation methodology. Peru now has a satellite-based monitoring system that produces precise, annual estimates of deforestation and is one of the most advanced among tropical countries. Inclusion of regional governments in the monitoring process is highly desired because it would enable Peru’s monitoring efforts to benefit from local knowledge, facilitate greater communication and transparency in the monitoring process and results, and because it could increase confidence throughout Peru in the national monitoring program.
