Brazil, September 2019 – At the invitation of MapBiomas Brasil, representatives of MapBiomas Indonesia visited Brazil in September 2019. In Brazil, a team consisting of four staff from Auriga Nusantara and two staff from Woods & Wayside International attended the annual meeting of MapBiomas Brasil’s Scientific Advisory Committee, the launching of MapBiomas Brasil Collection 4.0, visits to several member institutions of MapBiomas Brasil, and field trips to the Cerrado ecosystem and the Amazon jungle.
The MapBiomas Brasil Scientific Advisory Committee is a group of academics, government officials, and civil society staff who are leaders in the field of remote sensing. The collegial debate and in-depth discussions of this committee were a lesson for the MapBiomas Indonesia delegation in how to continually improve the maps and data while forming close collaborations across academia, civil society, and government.
The launch of MapBiomas Brasil 4.0 at a location near Brasilia brought 300 attendees from a variety of backgrounds. The enthusiasm for the launch demonstrated how novel approaches can generate interest in forest conservation. Both the formal program and informal discussions with MapBiomas member institutions and users of the platform helped increase the MapBiomas Indonesia team’s understanding of the potential for the platform to be used for a variety of purposes, including public health and government policy planning.
Field trips to both the Cerrado biome at the Jardim Botanico de Brasilia and to the Amazon rainforest illustrated how satellite imagery analysis can capture on-the-ground changes.
Following the trip, the lessons learned were communicated to the MapBiomas Indonesia network for discussion on how to apply them for working towards MapBiomas Indonesia’s first collection of maps and data.
