Description

This project has developed a global, standard and large-scale method for estimating and mapping changes in forests and the associated direct drivers using cloud-computing solutions and open-source tools, piloted in Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo. Phase 1 is already completed, with the generation of high-quality spatial data on forest change and related proximate drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the six previously mentioned countries in the Congo Basin. CIFOR supports Phase II of the local-level socioeconomic analysis of proximate and underlying drivers of forest change in the Congo Basin. The work updates and improves the socioeconomic data collection tools that were tested in Cameroon and DRC and extends the pilot testing to new sites in up to four countries not previously covered in the 2022 work (Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, and Republic of Congo). The aim is to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the ‘on-the-ground’ dynamics driving the forest change observed in the spatial analysis on forest change and related proximate drivers of deforestation and forest degradation that has already been generated by FAO, and to develop local-level socioeconomic methods and tools that have the potential to be up-scaled to provincial, national, or regional levels.