USAID Greening Prey Lang and SERVIR-Mekong have recently visited field sites throughout the Prey Lang Extended Landscape (PLEL) to meet with users of two geospatial tools developed by SERVIR Mekong.

According to a press release of USAID Greening Prey Lang, SERVIR-Mekong is one of five global hubs supported by USAID and NASA to provide geo-spatial tools and information systems to all levels of decision-makers on climate, agriculture, disaster, and land use issues.

In Cambodia, the geo-spatial tools developed by SERVIR-Mekong include a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Forest Disturbance Alert System and a Biophysical Monitoring and Evaluation Dashboard.

The SAR Alert system fills a critical gap in forest monitoring as the system is able to detect forest change through cloud cover. The SAR Alert system is fully integrated into patrol planning for over 45 community-based organisations patrolling Community Protected Areas and Community Forests in the PLEL.

With the support of Conservation International and the Wildlife Conservation Society, Provincial Department of Environment rangers also incorporate SAR Alerts into their patrol plans through Protected Area Monitoring Platform (PAMP) Command Centers in Preah Vihear, Stung Treng, and Kampong Thom provinces.

The multi-faceted Biophysical Monitoring and Evaluation Dashboard is used to evaluate landscape-level changes in conservation projects. Across the PLEL partners are using the Dashboard to support REDD+ project land cover validation and verification. All geospatial tools developed by SERVIR-Mekong can be accessed at https://servir.adpc.net/.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press