NASA selects Panama’s proposal

The Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente) reported that NASA selected the Panamanian proposal to develop a "Forest Information and Sustainable Management System’’.

The proposal featured  Erika Podest, George Chang, of NASA , Amita Mehtadel, of the Joint Center for Earth Systems, in collaboration with Roney Samaniego, Javier Martínez, Vaneska Bethancourt, of MiAmbiente, and Francesco Tubiello, of the Organization of the United Nations for Food and Agriculture (FAO for its acronym in English).

The selection was made specifically within the Program of Ecological Forecasts in the framework of the call for "Opportunities for Research in Space and Earth Sciences 2018" (ROSES, for its acronym in English).

The Forest Information and Management System will use satellite data from the Sentinel instruments -1 A and B, Landsat 8, MODIS and SAR of Palsar -1-2 to monitor the net forest area in the context of climate variability and change . The amount approved to develop this project is $217,000 for a duration of three years.

The Vice President of the Republic and Foreign Minister, Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, underlined the importance of this project within the framework of the Scientific, Technological and Innovation Diplomacy program coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Panamanian official highlighted the achievement as an important step in the fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goal 15, on the life of terrestrial ecosystems, particularly the goal of sustainable forest management.