Conference Agenda

ID: 451 / 3.04.1: 1

Increasing Space Agency Impact on Biodiversity Conservation

Gary Geller¹, Antonio Ferraz¹, Peter Kalmus¹, Shaun Levick², Sandra Luque³, Marc Paganini⁴, Roger Sayre⁵, Woody Turner⁶

1 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; 2 CSIRO; 3 INRAE/CNES; 4 ESA; 5 USGS; 6 NASA

Earth Observations (EO) from space are essential for monitoring, understanding, and guiding biodiversity conservation but EO’s value is only partially exploited. This workshop’s main objective is to identify specific barriers to full exploitation and to propose activities that space agencies should consider to increase their impact. The outcome will provide input to the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS, a coordinating group of the world’s civil space agencies) which is actively exploring ways to increase space agency engagement with biodiversity so societal impact can be increased. It will also provide input to several specific agencies that are in the process of long-term Earth science planning.

The workshop will start with several contextual presentations by agencies and others to set the stage for further discussions that will focus on questions such as:

• What are the barriers to using EO data for biodiversity conservation applications? Which barriers should agencies focus on to increase the impact of their data products?
• What EO data products are missing or inadequate and why? What should agencies do to address this, including, for example, developing more algorithms, generating more products, or increasing product quality?
• Assessing where EO has been successfully used for biodiversity conservation to date and the reasons for these successful applications
• What tools are needed to facilitate data product access and utilization for improved decision making?
• How can inter-agency and other partnerships be leveraged to increase the impact of EO on biodiversity conservation?

Answers to these and related questions will be consolidated into actions that space agencies can consider.