The Ministry of the Environment of Peru (MINAM) now employs CLASlite for their System to Monitor Land Cover, Deforestation and Forest Degradation, a critical element for the management of Peruvian forests at the national level. Supported by CLASlite science, this system has yielded high-resolution (30 meter) maps of forest cover and deforestation across the Peruvian Amazon.
This operational application of CLASlite, in the context of an inter-institutional collaboration agreement between Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology and MINAM, has also revealed numerous opportunities for the improvement of CLASlite technology. Enhanced cloud masking, improved forest change criteria, and optimized use of computing resources are examples of user-driven technical development in CLASlite spurred by MINAM’s intensive use of the software.
A summary of preliminary outcomes of MINAM’s forest monitoring system is included in El Perú de los bosques, an inter-ministerial publication focusing on sustainable management and conservation of the country’s forests.El Perú de los bosques (PDF)
Perú. Ministerio del Ambiente. Programa Nacional de Conservación de Bosques para la Mitigación del Cambio Climático; Perú. Ministerio de Agricultura. Dirección General Forestal y Fauna Silvestre. 2011, 141 pages. See pages 122-123, “La pérdida de los bosques en el Perú”.
William A. Llactayo LeónResponsable del Sistema de Información Geográfica del Ministerio del Ambiente
