USAID and the U.S. Forest Service Train Fire and Land Managers on Fire Emissions Estimation Techniques

USAID LEAF, the Thailand Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, the U.S. Forest Service, and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific brought together fire and land managers in Chiang Mai from January 27 to 29 for a training on simple and practical methods for estimating greenhouse gas emissions from fires.

Fires are a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the region, but many fire and land managers lack the necessary skills and methodologies to quantify them. Training efforts focused on how to estimate past emissions from fires and included a field visit to compare field data from a forest burn scar with remote sensed imagery.

The workshop produced a technical guidance manual on best practices for using specific methods and tools under various circumstances. The manual will now become part of USAID LEAF’s Technical Guidance Series on Forest Monitoring.

Source: USAID/RDMA Regional Environment Office Weekly Update