In Liberia more that 40% of the land is covered with forest and the country is considered as one of West Africa’s most important carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots. The Liberian Government recognizes the importance of their natural forest resources and works toward a national REDD+ forest inventory.
Global climate change threatens people, their communities and their livelihoods around the world. As part of an international climate agreement the international community has developed a climate change mitigation and economic incentive mechanism designed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, called REDD+.
GeoVille is leading a consortium to upgrade Liberia's Land Cover and Forest Map of 2015 to meet the national forest definition in support of the countrywide REDD+ forest inventory. In 2014/15 GeoVille and Metria together produced the first ever high-resolution forest and land cover map of Liberia over about 96 320 km² land area. Since then the Liberian Government has adopted an official definition of forest that deviates from the definition used in the previous mapping of forest resources. GeoVille has been tasked to lead the proven GeoVille/Metria consortium to upgrade the existing map to reflect the new forest definition. This task entails the reliable mapping of rubber tree and oil palm plantations to set them apart from natural forest.
Using sensor fusion techniques of optical and various SAR band imagery, GeoVille and Metria will map plantations down to 1 hectar and ensure that the upgraded Land Cover and Forest Map for 2015 will serve as a base map for both REDD+ stock taking and for future monitoring of carbon sequestration.