Ethiopia: A project aimed at supporting Ethiopia's REDD (Reducing Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation) Monitoring, Reporting and Validation (MRV) activities has been launched. The two-year project, being carried out with the co-operation of various German organisations, will help to get high resolution satellite images to measure the carbon absorption capacity of forests.
Above: Overview of BlackBridge’s coverage of Ethiopia with less than 10% Cloud Coverage
The project, which costs 400,000 euros, will be carried out by the Ministry of Forestry in collaboration with German partners BlackBridge, RSS (Remote Sensing Solutions) as well as GIZ. The satellite images will help scientists to know the storage capacity of the forest of 900,000 hectares of land in all parts of the country. The information gathered from those images will help Ethiopia access the carbon trade, a mechanism allowing the offset of emissions in developed countries by the investment in emission reduction projects in developing countries.
Upon completion in two years, the project will help to develop a national system which enables Ethiopia to classify and interpret data, measure carbon absorption capacity as well as report and validate the data.
The project will help to build the country's capacity in the efforts to realise a Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy, which envisages reaching middle-income status by 2025 with low carbon emissions. Ethiopia launched its Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) in 2011, ahead of the 17th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17).
Source: Bernama
