Launch of the FRA 2020 Remote Sensing Survey

FAO to launch the latest edition of the FRA 2020 Remote Sensing Survey on 3 May at the World Forestry Congress in Seoul (Korea).

FAO is launching the State of the World’s Forests 2022 (SOFO) at 11:00 Korea Standard Time (04:00 CET) on 2 May and the Global Forest Resources Assessment Remote Sensing Survey (FRA RSS) at 12:30 Korea Standard Time (05:30 CET) on 3 May at the XV World Forestry Congress in Seoul.

The SOFO sets out how halting deforestation and maintaining forests could avoid significant greenhouse-gas emissions – about 14 percent of the reduction needed up to 2030 to keep planetary warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. It could also safeguard more than half the Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity. Sustainably using forests and building green value chains would help meet future demand for materials – with global consumption of all natural resources expected to more than double from 92 billion tonnes 2017 to 190 billion tonnes in 2060; Restoring degraded lands and expanding agroforestry: 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land – an area twice the size of Australia – would benefit from restoration, and increasing tree cover could boost agricultural productivity on another 1 billion hectares. Afforestation and reforestation could cost-effectively take up to 1.5 gigatonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year out of the atmosphere (similar to taking up to 325 million gasoline-powered passenger cars off the road each year) between 2020 and 2050.

Meanwhile, the FRA 2020 Remote Sensing Survey will provide new data on global deforestation. It gives a clearer understanding of the trends and drivers of deforestation, with new information on land use, land-use changes, and direct deforestation driver estimates at global, regional, and ecological zone levels.

The FAO-led study was conducted using satellite data and tools (open-source Collect Earth Online) developed in partnership with Google, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Spatial Informatics Group (SIG).

Both SOFO 2022 and FRA 2020 RSS events can be followed by registering here.