Tipping the Scales: Advancing Forest Monitoring for the Amazon’s Future

Forest monitoring is central to Brazil’s fight against Amazon deforestation. The event will discuss the composition of the forest monitoring system spearheaded by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). It will further discuss recent advancements of INPE’s monitoring system via the use of machine learning to analyze large earth observation datasets resulting in higher efficiency to deliver near real-time monitoring.

Other than direct contribution to deforestation prevention, cutting-edge forest monitoring is also crucial to the implementation of policy instruments such as the Deforestation Regulation of the European Union and national restoration pledges to meet the Bonn Challenge. These policy instruments are crucial to manage the potential exceeding of global greenhouse gas emissions beyond the level required to achieve Paris Agreement goals.

As part of broader science and technology dialogues for the tropics, the event will also explore how advancements in forest monitoring technologies are being driven by bottom-up stakeholder engagement in another tropical basin, a key approach to fostering a nature-centered economic development paradigm.