A stakeholder workshop was organized on 15 April 2015 to present new developments in forest cover mapping and current initiatives undertaken by two organizations and to discuss opportunities.

At the opening of the workshop, ICIMOD’s Director Programme Operations, Dr Eklabya Sharma, welcomed the new partnership and acknowledged that working with WRI can contribute to reducing data gap in the region.

Also speaking at the occasion, Director of Global Forest Watch, Crystals Davis, said that regularly monitoring global forest cover has contributed in sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystem services. She said the new partnership would not only complement ICIMOD’s efforts in the region but will also help in exploring better means of monitoring forest cover in the future.

ICIMOD’s Regional Programme Manager for MENRIS, Birendra Bajracharya, talked about a number of SERVIR science applications in supporting decision making in the region. He pointed out that the partnership would benefit ICIMOD in learning from global experiences and also contribute to improving global assessments.

Also, at the workshop, ICIMOD’s Theme Leader for Geospatial Solutions, Dr MSR Murthy, shared regional experiences of application in geospatial approaches for monitoring of forest ecosystems from landscape level to tree canopy level. This kind of assessment has contributed in turning data and information into actionable products.

The stakeholder meeting was attended by experts form WRI and ICIMOD, and officials from the Department of Forests in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.