Achard Frédéric

• PhD
• Project Manager at European Commission

The Amazon rainforest, a vital global ecosystem, is facing significant threats from the loss of intact forest through deforestation and degradation. This report provides an overview of recent forest changes in the Amazon, focusing on Brazil, the country with the largest portion of the Amazon. Based on the JRC cloud-computed, remote sensing – based,...

The report provides guidance on how private operators can use national and global land use maps from 2020 to conduct an initial assessment of the risks of non-compliance with the deforestation-free criteria of the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products. The specific case of Côte d'Ivoire, the world's largest producer of cocoa, is examined. We...

Tropical forest degradation from selective logging, fire and edge effects is a major driver of carbon and biodiversity loss1–3, with annual rates comparable to those of deforestation⁴. However, its actual extent and long-term impacts remain uncertain at global tropical scale⁵. Here we quantify the magnitude and persistence of multiple types of degr...

This document presents the approach for the new Global map of Forest Cover for year 2020 at 10m spatial resolution (GFC 2020, version 1 dated 07 December 2023). GFC 2020 builds on several global data sets and provides a spatially explicit representation of forest presence and absence for the year 2020. The map is therefore a harmonized, globally-co...

This report aims to give an overview of the recent forest cover changes in the Amazon region, and furthermore, for Brazil, the country with the largest share of the Amazon to put these changes into a political and institutional perspective. Consistent data specifically for monitoring forest degradation of the Amazon, caused mainly by forest fires a...

The globally important carbon sink of intact, old-growth tropical humid forests is declining because of climate change, deforestation and degradation from fire and logging1–3. Recovering tropical secondary and degraded forests now cover about 10% of the tropical forest area⁴, but how much carbon they accumulate remains uncertain. Here we quantify t...

In the Amazon, deforestation and climate change lead to increased vulnerability to forest degradation, threatening its existing carbon stocks and its capacity as a carbon sink. We use satellite L‐Band Vegetation Optical Depth (L‐VOD) data that provide an integrated (top‐down) estimate of biomass carbon to track changes over 2011–2019. Because the s...

The report is a 2021 update of last year's report on the deforestation and forest degradation 2020 in the Amazon region. It presents regional and national forest disturbance statistics based on TMF data, provided by the Joint Research Centre of the European Comission. In addition, it compares TMF data 2021 with INPE-PRODES, INPE-DETER data and give...

Tropical forests are disappearing at an alarming rate due to human activities. Here, we provide spatial models of deforestation in 92 countries covering all the tropical moist forests in the world. Our results question the global effectiveness of protected areas in curbing deforestation and allow reinterpreting the impact of roads on deforestation...

High-resolution Earth observation data is routinely used to monitor tropical forests. However, the seasonality and openness of the canopy of dry tropical forests remains a challenge for optical sensors. In this study, we demonstrate the potential of combining Sentinel-1 (S1) SAR and Sentinel-2 (S2) optical sensors in order to map the tree cover in...

Este relatório comunica as estatísticas de desmatamento e degradação florestal 2002-2020 para a floresta tropical nos países sul-americanos da região amazônica, com base no novo conjunto de dados JRC Tropical Moist Forest (JRC-TMF). Além disso, o relatório descreve a dinâmica do desmatamento e degradação florestal na região, enfatizando vários tipo...

La degradación de los bosques amazónicos debe incorporarse a la agenda de la COP26 (traducción)

A degradação da floresta amazônica deve ser incorporada à agenda da COP26 (Tradução)

Southeast Asia is a region known for active land‐use changes (LUC) over the past 60 years; yet, how trends in net CO2 uptake and release resulting from LUC activities (net LUC flux) have changed through past decades remains uncertain. The level of uncertainty in net LUC flux from process‐based models is so high that it cannot be concluded that newe...

A brief example of monitoring forest areas in Cote d'Ivoire

Free-to-read at: https://rdcu.be/cw7ua; Portuguese and Spanish versions of this paper are provided at: https://github.com/celsohlsj/ngeo_correspondence

This report aims to communicate the statistics of deforestation and forest degradation 2002-2020 for the rainforest in the South American countries of the Amazon region, based on the new JRC Tropical Moist Forest (JRC-TMF) dataset. In addition, the report describes the dynamics of deforestation and forest degradation in the region, while putting an...

In recent decades, global oil palm production has shown an abrupt increase, with almost 90% produced in Southeast Asia alone. To understand trends in oil palm plantation expansion and for landscape-level planning, accurate maps are needed. Although different oil palm maps have been produced using remote sensing in the past, here we use Sentinel 1 i...

Accurate characterization of tropical moist forest changes is needed to support conservation policies and to quantify their contribution to global carbon fluxes more effectively. We document, at pantropical scale, the extent and changes (degradation, deforestation, and recovery) of these forests over the past three decades. We estimate that 17% of...

Deforestation is the primary driver of carbon losses in tropical forests, but it does not operate alone. Forest fragmentation, a resulting feature of the deforestation process, promotes indirect carbon losses induced by edge effect. This process is not implicitly considered by policies for reducing carbon emissions in the tropics. Here, we used a r...

Accurate characterization of the tropical moist forests changes is needed to support conservation policies and to better quantify their contribution to global carbon fluxes. We document - at pantropical scale - the extent of these forests and their changes (degradation, deforestation and recovery) over the last three decades. We estimate that 17% o...

Madagascar is recognized both for its unparalleled biodiversity and the high level of threat suffered by this biodiversity, associated in particular with anthropogenic deforestation. Despite sustained efforts to fight poverty and curb deforestation, forest cover in Madagascar is rapidly decreasing. To try to explain why it is so difficult to stop d...

In recent decades, global oil palm production has shown an abrupt increase, with almost 90% produced in Southeast Asia alone. Monitoring oil palm is largely based on national surveys and inventories or one-off mapping studies. However, they do not provide detailed spatial extent or timely updates and trends in oil palm expansion or age. Palm oil yi...

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and enhancing carbon stocks (REDD+) is a crucial component of global climate change mitigation. Remote sensing can provide continuous and spatially explicit above-ground biomass (AGB) estimates, which can be valuable for the quantification of carbon stocks and emission factors (EFs). Unf...

Imagery from medium resolution satellites, such as Landsat, have long been used to map forest disturbances in the tropics. However, the Landsat spatial resolution (30 m) has often been considered too coarse for reliably mapping small-scale selective logging. Imagery from the recently launched Sentinel-2 sensor, with a resampled 10 m spatial resolut...

The island of Madagascar has a unique biodiversity, mainly located in the tropical forests of the island. This biodiversity is highly threatened by anthropogenic deforestation. Existing historical forest maps at national level are scattered and have substantial gaps which prevent an exhaustive assessment of long-term deforestation trends in Madagas...

The island of Madagascar has a unique biodiversity, mainly located in the tropical forests of the island. This biodiversity is highly threatened by anthropogenic deforestation. Existing historical forest maps at national level are scattered and have substantial gaps which prevent an exhaustive assessment of long-term deforestation trends in Madagas...

The purpose of the Handbook on “Remote Sensing for Agricultural Statistics” is to provide guidelines on the use of Remote Sensing for agricultural statistics. Since the mid 70’s, Remote Sensing has been seen as a promising technique for improving agricultural statistics; various applications have taken place on all continents and today various appr...

The growing access to Earth Observations and processing capabilities have stimulated the production of global and regional products that are commonly used to assess tree-covered habitats and their changes. The popularity of these products has led to their use for defining baselines and to assess progress in conserving natural habitats, in particula...

The recent availability of time series of Sentinel-2 imagery represents a significant technological step in the use of Earth Observation (EO) data for forest cover monitoring. The 5 days revisiting time (S-2 A and S-2B satellites) and the 10m spatial resolution imply the need for much larger storage and processing resources than ever. To facilitate...

Forest cover disturbances due to processes such as logging and forest fires are a widespread issue especially in the tropics, and have heavily affected forest biomass and functioning in the Brazilian Amazon in the past decades. Satellite remote sensing has played a key role for assessing logging activities in this region; however, there are still r...

Un atelier a eu lieu au Centre Commun de Recherche (CCR), à Ispra (Italie), du 27 au 31 Mars 2017. Les activités de cet atelier se sont appuyées sur le projet ReCaREDD financé par la DG DEVCO et le Projet Roadless financé par DG CLIMA. L'atelier a réuni un groupe d'experts des pays partenaires du bassin du Congo en provenance du Cameroun, de la Rép...

In this study, the recently launched Sentinel-2 (S2) optical satellite and the active radar Sentinel-1 (S1) satellite supported by active fire data from the MODIS sensor were used to detect and monitor forest fires in the Congo Basin. In the context of a very strong El Niño event, an unprecedented outbreak of fires was observed during the first mon...

The use of fire in tropics for land management and for forest clearing contributes to forest degradation and to carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Yet, a comprehensive understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of forest fires is needed to mitigate such impacts. The primary aim of this study is to map burned forest in Brazilian Amazon by m...

[Extract] In case you had not yet noticed, we are in the midst of an environmental revolution – one that revolves around escalating improvements in Earth Observation, open data, and the creation of new data platforms that provide remarkable linkages among disparate kinds of information. The power and potential of these new platforms is unprecedente...

Two recent remote sensing derived products providing assessment of forest cover change in the Congo Basin for the last two decades were compared and combined to obtain estimates of forest cover change in Cameroon for the period 1990-2012. The intensity of deforestation in the whole region decreased from the 1990s to the 2000s. Forest loss is observ...

In this paper we analyse the extent of fire-induced forest degradation in Mato Grosso State, Brazil. We utilise a sample based approach used in a previous pan-tropical deforestation survey to derive information on land cover and burned areas in the two major biomes of Mato Grosso: Amazon and Cerrado. Land cover and burned area are mapped for three...

Land use change in South America, mainly deforestation, is a large source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Identifying and addressing the causes or drivers of anthropogenic forest change is considered crucial for global climate change mitigation. Few countries however, monitor deforestation drivers in a systematic manner. National-level quantitative...

The area of land covered by forest and trees is an important indicator of environmental condition. This study presents and analyses results from the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015 (FRA 2015) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FRA 2015 was based on responses to surveys by individual countries using a common repo...

The 'Reduction of Emissions from deforestation and forest degradation' (REDD+) activities under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are expected to offer results-based payments to developing countries for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from forested lands. It is necessary to determine reference data on forest carbo...

This paper presents a semi-automated procedure for mapping degraded forest areas in Mato Grosso state, Brazil, from medium (30m) resolution satellite imagery. In the Brazilian Amazon region forest degradation in the context of UNFCCC REDD+ (i.e. considered as long term reduction of Carbon stocks in forests) is mainly driven by logging activities an...

The area of land covered by forest and trees is an important indicator of environmental condition. This study presents and analyses results from the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015 (FRA 2015) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FRA 2015 was based on responses to surveys by individual countries using a common repo...

This paper presents a new approach for estimating burned areas at a regional scale, using a systematic sample of medium spatial resolution satellite images. This approach is based on a pan-tropical deforestation survey developed by the Joint Research Centre. We developed and tested our approach over Mato Grosso State, located in the Brazilian Legal...

This study investigates how two existing pan-tropical above-ground biomass (AGB) maps (Saatchi 2011, Baccini 2012) can be combined to derive forest ecosystem specific carbon estimates. Several data-fusion models which combine these AGB maps according to their local correlations with independent datasets such as the spectral bands of SPOT VEGETATION...

Abstract

Using an R2-weighted data-fusion model two existing above-ground biomass (AGB) maps (Saatchi and Baccini) are combined to derive improved AGB estimates for the Amazon biome. Advantage of this methodology is the increased transparency to hitherto existing approaches and the fact that no AGB reference datasets are necessary for the implementation. In...

This paper presents a multidisciplinary approach used to assess forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon based on remote sensing and spatial pattern analysis techniques. The selected study area is located in the Mato Grosso State, which is one of the states of the Brazilian legal Amazon with the highest deforestation rates and with a high concent...

Monitoring tropical forest cover is central to biodiversity preservation, terrestrial carbon stocks, essential ecosystem and climate functions, and ultimately, sustainable economic development. The Amazon forest is the Earth's largest rainforest, and despite intensive studies on current deforestation rates, relatively little is known as to how thes...

Monitoring tropical forest cover is central to biodiversity preservation, terrestrial carbon stocks, essential ecosystem and climate functions, and ultimately, sustainable economic development. The Amazon forest is the Earth's largest rainforest, and despite intensive studies on current deforestation rates, relatively little is known as to how thes...

Monitoring tropical forest cover is central to biodiversity preservation, terrestrial carbon stocks, essential ecosystem and climate functions, and ultimately, sustainable economic development. The Amazon forest is the Earth's largest rainforest, and despite intensive studies on current deforestation rates, relatively little is known as to how thes...

Essential Climate Variables were listed by the Global Climate Observing System as critical information to further understand the climate system and support climate modelling. The European Space Agency launched its Climate Change Initiative in order to provide an adequate response to the set of requirements for long-term satellite-based products for...

IPCC Tier 1 above-ground biomass (AGB) default values per ecological zone have high uncertainties. Remote sensing based pan-tropical biomass maps can be used to derive more realistic Tier 1 values and furthermore allow a pixel-level analysis. Such approach enables more robust AGB estimates at ecological scale as the geospatial pattern of AGB in tro...

The main objective of our study was to provide consistent information on land cover changes between the years 1990 and 2010 for the Cerrado and Caatinga Brazilian seasonal biomes. These areas have been overlooked in terms of land cover change assessment if compared with efforts in monitoring the Amazon rain forest. For each of the target years (199...

In this review paper we present geographical, ecological and historical aspects of Southeast Asia from the perspective of forest degradation monitoring and critically discuss available approaches for large area forest degradation monitoring with satellite remote sensing data at high to medium spatial resolution (5–30 m). Several authors have achiev...

The IPCC Guidelines propose 3 Tier levels for greenhouse gas monitoring within the forest land category with a hierarchical order in terms of accuracy, data requirements and complexity. Due to missing data and/or capacities, many developing countries, potentially interested in the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation scheme,...

A method has been developed to identify and map areas of forest degradation caused by either selective logging or fires in tropical humid ecosystems. Our study area is located in the Mato Grosso state of Brazil, in a region known as ‘Deforestation Arc’. Eight consecutive Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images were available over this s...

This paper presents a method for mapping and assessing burned areas at a regional scale, using a systematic sample of medium spatial resolution satellite images (Landsat). The State of Mato Grosso, located in the Brazilian Amazon region, comprising an area of approximately 903,366 km, was selected for this study. 77 sample sites (20km × 20km in siz...

Gains of forest cover and Other Wooded Land (OWL) for all sample sites over the tree continents and the two periods: 1990–2000 and 2000–2010. Gross gain of forest cover appears in dark green circles when gross gain from OWL losses appears in light green circles. Range is 0–50% gain over one decade.

The IPCC proposes three Tier levels for greenhouse gas emission monitoring with a hierarchical order in terms of accuracy as well as data requirements/complexity. While Tier 1 provides default above-ground biomass (AGB) values per ecological zone and continent, Tier 2 and 3 are either based on country-specific remote sensing or permanent sample-plo...

We estimate changes in forest cover (deforestation and forest regrowth) in the tropics for the two last decades (1990-2000 and 2000-2010) based on a sample of 4,000 units of 10km×10km size. Forest cover is interpreted from satellite imagery at 30m×30m resolution. Forest cover changes are then combined with pan-tropical biomass maps to estimate carb...

The process of gathering land-cover information has evolved significantly over the last decade (2000–2010). In addition to this, current technical infrastructure allows for more rapid and efficient processing of large multi-temporal image databases at continental scale. But whereas the data availability and processing capabilities have increased, t...

The study assesses the extent and trends of forest cover in Southeast Asia for the periods 1990–2000 and 2000–2010 and provides an overview on the main causes of forest cover change. A systematic sample of 418 sites (10 km×10 km size) located at the one-degree geographical confluence points and covered with satellite imagery of 30m resolution is us...

A sourcebook of methods and procedures for monitoring and reporting anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and removals associated with deforestation, gains and losses of carbon stocks in forests remaining forests, and forestation

Led by the European Space Agency, the Climate Change Initiative land cover project focuses on the land cover observed as an Essential Climate Variable. Consultation mechanisms were established with the climate modelling community in order to identify its specific needs in terms of satellite-based global land cover products. Key finding was the need...

This paper presents a map of Africa's rainforests for 2005. Derived from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer data at a spatial resolution of 250 m and with an overall accuracy of 84%, this map provides new levels of spatial and thematic detail. The map is accompanied by measurements of deforestation between 1990, 2000 and 2010 for West Af...

The study assesses the extent and trends of forest cover in Southeast Asia for the period 1990–2000–2010 and provides an overview on the main drivers of forest cover change. A systematic sample of 418 sites (10 km × 10 km size) located at the one-degree geographical confluence points and covered with satellite imagery of 30 m resolution is used for...

This study provides regional estimates of forest cover in dry African ecoregions and the changes in forest cover that occurred there between 1990 and 2000, using a systematic sample of medium-resolution satellite imagery which was processed consistently across the continent. The study area corresponds to the dry forests and woodlands of Africa betw...

This article covers the very recent developments undertaken for estimating tropical deforestation from Earth observation data. For the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process it is important to tackle the technical issues surrounding the ability to produce accurate and consistent estimates of GHG emissions from deforestation i...