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News  Earth observation highlighted at UN biological diversity conference
Addressing the global issue of biodiversity loss, participants from all over the world recently gathered in Germany to attend the UN's Convention of Biological Diversity Conference of Parties. During the conference, data from Earth observation satellites was highlighted as playing a crucial role in the conservation of biological diversity and sustainable development. In recognition of the importance of biological diversity in sustaining the Earth's population of six billion, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) was signed by 150 government leaders at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. As a result, world governments have agreed to significantly reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The Conference of Parties (COP) is the Convention's governing body and advances implementation of the Convention through the decisions it takes at periodic meetings.
Representatives from the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which are all supported by ESA, expressed their satisfaction and confirmed the usefulness of EO data. Nick Davidson from the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands introduced the GlobWetland project as an example of how EO data can be used for wetland assessment, monitoring and management.
He said that, "Often made up of complex and inaccessible terrain, monitoring ecological changes in wetlands without the use of satellite data is very difficult. The project produces land-use cover and change detection maps for use by wetland managers and policymakers. ESA EO data has considerable power and potential in providing the intelligence behind making sound decisions on management and policy."
Lúcio de Rosário from the Portuguese National Focal Point Assistant for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD also spoke at the event and presented DesertWatch, a joint UNCCD-ESA programme designed to assist parties with implementation.
From an economic perspective, Jean-Louis Weber from the European Environment Agency (EEA) provided insight into a less obvious way in which EO data is helping measure how the loss of biodiversity is affecting our quality of life in terms of wealth. The current thinking is that when calculating a country's gross domestic product, a monetary value should be included to represent the costs to an ecosystem that have come about through providing various goods and services.
An extensive study on ecosystem accounts for Mediterranean wetlands is being carried out that relies on land-cover maps derived from EO data to assess economic costs to the environment. This study is part of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity report - a joint German Ministry for Environment and European Commission initiative.
The wildlife migration service developed within the Diversity project relies on near real-time satellite-derived maps of oceanographic conditions such as sea-surface temperature, water quality and surface currents in the Tropical East Pacific Corridor. The different EO data products are derived using results from ESA's Medispiration and GlobColour projects.
The essence, discussions held at the UNCBD-COP9 highlighted how EO-derived data is proving invaluable in providing an insight into the change of land cover as well as changes in marine and fresh water environments. Since biological diversity is intrinsically linked to such changes, biodiversity loss can be assessed at local, regional and global scales through a broad-range of applications. As the world's population grows and biodiversity diminishes, it was also made clear that EO-data is becoming an increasingly important tool in attempts to achieve sustainable development.
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