Recognizing the role of land use change in combatting climate change, many African countries are implementing strategies to halt deforestation and manage their land resources sustainably. National land monitoring systems are essential for these countries, as they provide the necessary information for application in creating national land policies, planning and sustainable development. Land monitoring systems enable assessment, aiming to produce high-quality, reliable data which is essential for national and regional plans and strategies. Land cover information is used to monitor at least eight of the 17 SDG targets and is one of the Global Fundamental Geospatial Data Themes under the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management.

However, access and use of timely and robust land cover information at local, national and regional level is still constrained. While cloud-based supercomputers and modern geospatial data platforms, such as SEPAL, are contributing to the remarkable progress in earth observation, most of the land cover products are generated for very specific purposes without considering the multisectoral and interoperability potentials. This results in scattered, inconsistent, incomplete data and information with, often, very limited documentation and use. FAO supports the development of international standards (e.g. ISO 19144-2:2012) and enhancing national capacities for land cover monitoring and national statistics on land use for more cost-effective, efficient, interoperable and multi-sectoral use of land cover data and information. 

The OSS has been supporting national teams  for land cover monitoring, land cover atlas and the use of LCML under the Sahel and West Africa program and «Building Resilience through Innovation, Communication and Knowledge Services - BRICKS» project. NASA-SERVIR West-Africa implemented by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) , the Agrometeorology, Hydrology and Meteorology (AGRHYMET) Regional Centre, and its consortium partners, with support from Tetra Tech, Inc. promotes the use of publicly available satellite imagery and related geospatial decision-support tools/products. 

Harmonising/standardizing the classification of land cover map legends and systems are essential to improve knowledge on the status of natural resources and for sustainable land and forest management and allows for comparability across space and time. Countries in West Africa use different classification systems, and there is a need to propose an integrated land cover platform which contributes to national forest monitoring across the 15 ECOWAS states. 

To support countries in West Africa in implementing land and forest monitoring activities, FAO held a series of online technical virtual events from 15 October to 30 November 2020 under the framework of the joint project “Global Transformation of Forests for People and Climate: a focus on West Africa” funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in support of the implementation of the ECOWAS Forest Convergence plan.

Ten sessions were organised from which, one session focused on the use of the FAO Land Cover Classification System (LCCS/LCML). This sixth session was organised with NASA-SERVIR, the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), AGRHYMET and FAO. The session introduced the various regional programmes related to land cover monitoring, as well as a specific presentation of LCML, LCCSv3 and land cover interoperability that was supported through hands-on exercises using LCCSv3 and country examples. The sixth session was attended by 109 participants from more than ten countries and various stakeholders from Governmental, intergovernmental, and international organisations, private sector entities, the civil society, NGOs and research and academic institutions.