The WWF recently set up a Conservation Science Network to help link the scientists, forest carbon experts, and species teams. The Conservation Science network is busy using GIS and other geospatial tools, including Clark Labs’ Land Change Modeler software extension to ArcGIS., to identify issues of deforestation and global change.
WWF is undertaking ongoing work worldwide, using GIS and remote sensing tools to better understand the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, and to better manage forests.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Land Change Modeler will be applied towards REDD efforts, where they are looking at deforestation, degradation, its associated drivers, and greenhouse gas emissions scenarios as part of a larger project on forest biomass and REDD.
In another project in the Heart of Borneo the collaboration will use Land Change Modeler to explore alternative development pathways and the impacts on the value of ecosystem services, those services that natural ecosystems provide, such as watershed protection, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity. The project will use current and historical earth observation data, integrated with other information to model future land cover under “business as usual” and “green economy” scenarios, based on the concept of payment for ecosystem services.
