Realizing the urgent need to harmonize methodologies and efforts of Governmental and Non-Governmental organizations in terms of geo-spatial information in general, and land-use classification in particular. FANC Madagascar together with the experts from the Ministry of Environment (MEDD) have organized a workshop untitled “Training and Sharing Experiences on Land-Use Classes and Forest Degradation Satellite Imagery Classification Method and how to measure humid forest intactness and degradation from ground to space! ” from June 11 to 16, 2019 in Andasibe Mantadia, Region of Alaotra Mangoro, Madagascar.
The objectives of the workshop are : to agree on Standard classes of land use in Humid Eco-Region, to share experiences on land-use classes and image interpretation methods and to share experiences on forest degradation satellite imagery classification method.
During the workshop, succession of presentations and discussions were relevant to understand each methodology and to focus reflection on how to avoid overlapping activities and redundancy of efforts. Also, intensive fieldworks in Mantadia National Park and Analamazaotra Forest Station were essential to have a common visual observation and a common understanding of each land-use class definition. Spatial data were collected with pictures of each land-use class for the training data of the Region of Interest.
Both participants were very satisfied of the workshop and have agreed on the next steps. By the end of this year, the plan is to have detailed comparison analysis of land-use classification results from the Object oriented method of FANC Madagascar and Pixel oriented method of Laboratory LOFM. Also, the perspective is to frequently share data and results and to expand the exchange to larger group of conservationists.
Note that after the success of project Manondroala one that has started in 2012 and has finished in 2017, the project team and partners are pleased to present Manondroala two began 2019 until 2022. This project Manondroala Empowering co-operation of government and civil society in forest protection in Madagascar is an ambitious forest conservation. The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation Madagascar
has partnered with e.g. Transparent World (Russia), and Association Mitsinjo in order to create a network of conservationists and forest administrators who seek solutions to both local and national conservation challenges. The final aim of the project is to create a new, locally applicable forest monitoring and forest restoration methods that can be used in community forest management as well as in research.
This workshop was representatives of Ministry of Environment are from la Direction Générale de l’Environnement et des Forêts (DGEF), la Direction de la Communication et du Système d’Information (DCSI), le Laboratoire d’Observation des Forêts de Madagascar (LOFM) du Bureau National des Changements Climatiques du Carbone et de la Réduction des Emissions dues à la Déforestation et Dégradation des Forêts (BNCCCREDD+)
Were also represented the Madagascar National Parks Andasibe Mantadia and the Association Mitsinjo Andasibe.
Collected by Nirina R.