VIRTUAL WORKSHOP – EYES ON NATURE: EARTH OBSERVATIONS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Environmental indicators are increasingly used in policy and management contexts, but serious data deficiencies exist for many parameters of interest to environmental decision-making. With its global coverage and the wide range of tools available, Earth Observations (OT) have the potential to fill several of these gaps; This resource provides ecologists and conservationists with a dynamic new tool that allows for everything from more accurate counts of wildlife populations to rapid detection of deforestation, illegal mining, and other changes to the landscape. However, its potential contribution to indicator development has remained largely untested. The statistical community (National Statistics Offices and Geographical or Environmental Institutes) faces a growing demand for data to which TOs could make an important contribution. However, there remain significant obstacles to the use of satellite OT for indicator development. These relate to difficulties in accessing and using the data, differences between what the satellites actually measure and the parameters of interest to decision makers, limited collaboration between stakeholders, technical issues such as interfering cloud cover with the collection of satellite data and the lack of technical and financial resources. Adding to these barriers are the gaps in the perception of “out of the box data” and the allowable levels of uncertainty between those in the Remote Sensing community, who have the technical expertise to process the data, and those in the policy community. , which could benefit from the indicators. It is evident that the ordered efforts to strengthen these aspects in the region will favor the production of timely and relevant information. The objective of this workshop, organized by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) of Mexico within the framework of the biennial program of activities of the Working Group on Environmental Statistics, is to share data, experiences and initiatives that allow exploring the feasibility of using satellite TOs to contribute and improve decision-making activities by official agencies through rigorous environmental indicators.