Abstract

Applying GIS toward forest sector in Central Africa and Indonesia
Track: Forestry
Authors: Pascal Douard, Andrew Leach

Ten years ago, very little forest information in Central Africa was publicly available or of sufficient quality for effective decision-making, leading to many undesirable effects on the management of forest resources. Through the Interactive Forest Atlas initiative, WRI has partnered closely with Ministries of Forests in six countries across Central Africa to use a combination of GIS, remote-sensing and field-based technologies to vastly improve the quality of, and access to, information on protected areas, logging and mining permits, community forests and other land use allocations.
WRI's Project POTICO supports sustainable palm oil production and improved forest management in Indonesia. Policies that promote low-carbon palm oil production on degraded land can enable industry expansion while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and protecting the rights and interests of local communities. POTICO has developed two web mapping applications designed to enable stakeholders to make improved land use decisions concerning sustainable palm oil.