102. A metric of contemporary forest degradation: 9:00am – 10:00am

News 12.09.19

Posted by Reena Chadee
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Event time: 9:00am – 10:00am
Location: Central Marquee Area, Central Park Zoo, New York
Event organizer: Wildlife Conservation Society

There is extensive evidence that high ecological integrity leads to higher levels of many ecosystem values important to people, and the degradation of integrity is happening worldwide. Indeed, globally, the aggregate impacts of degradation are arguably on a par with habitat conversion. However, ecological integrity is all too rarely included in policies or management decisions, partly because of a lack of practical tools to measure it. We will introduce an exciting, innovative new metric for mapping contemporary forest degradation. After explaining the science we will demonstrate what the metric reveals for patterns of degradation in different regions of the world, using compelling visuals from the team at Global Forest Watch. We will also demonstrate how participants can conduct fuller analyses and customization of one of the metrics via a tool in Google Earth Engine, providing countries with control and ownership over data.

Sign up here to attend

Partners/Sponsors: Wildlife Conservation Society and World Resources Institute