Munich, Germany,  January 25, 2013 -- GAF AG announces that the Global Environment Facility through the GEOFORAFRI Programme has awarded a contract to complete the 2010 forest cover mapping of the Republic of Congo for REDD+. 

The GEOFORAFRI programme aims to facilitate the adoption of earth observation techniques and ensure the methodological and technological know-how within Central and Western African countries, enabling
local institutions to carry out forest cover monitoring according to the international guidelines required to participate and benefit from the REDD+ mechanism.

The programme supports existing forest mapping initiatives in the Congo Basin and West African countries. GAF has been mapping historic forest cover (1990 – 2000 and 2010) in the Republic of Congo in the context of the European Space Agency financed GSE FM REDD Extension and has thus been selected to benefit from the GEOFORAFRI initiative.

Key activities of the project include:

• Development of the reference image database: Acquisition and image
  pre-processing required to complete the existing database on the entire
  national territory and the relevant periods

• Forest cover mapping: Finalization of the national forest cover mapping
  for 1990, 2000 and 2010 according to recommended international classifications

• Forest cover change mapping: Finalizing the forest cover change mapping
  for the considered periods and according to recommended international
  classifications

• Quality control: Accuracy assessment of the obtained products

• Capacity building: Measures to ensure the involvement of technical staff
  of the local partner, and staff training of MRV units in the use of remotely
  sensed data.

Capture: EO based Forest Cover and Forest Cover Change Mapping 

Copyrights: Landsat TM Dataset © USGS, 2001 

RapidEye Dataset © RapidEye AG, 2009, provided under ESA-EC GSC-DA

About GAF AG: GAF is an international consulting firm with leading competence and expertise in applied earth observation and spatial information systems for environmental, public and private sector applications. GAF has worked in the last 27 years in more than 100 countries throughout Europe, Africa, South-America and Asia. GAF offers a comprehensive portfolio of services ranging from supply of geo-data (e.g. satellite and aerial imagery, digital elevation models), and geo-services (e.g. image processing, thematic mapping, GIS/DBMS applications and software development). GAF has a proven track-record in performing technical assistance projects in the natural resources and environment sector. In the past 5 years, the company gained a valuable experience related to REDD from Pilot projects in the Congo Basin countries such as Cameroon, Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. GAF is a member of the Telespazio Group, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica and Thales.

To obtain more information, please contact:
GAF AG
Dr. Thomas Haeusler or Dr. René Siwe
Tel. +49 (0) 89 12 15 28 0
www.gaf.de and www.redd-services.info
Email: Email Contact