New land cover mapping results and a geospatial portal for data dissemination and sharing were highlighted at a recent meeting held by the Fouta Djallon Highlands Integrated Natural Resources Management Project.
18 January 2013: New land cover mapping results and a geospatial portal for data dissemination and sharing were highlighted at a recent meeting held by the Fouta Djallon Highlands Integrated Natural Resources Management Project.
The GeoPortal tool will be used to document geospatial datasets and outputs in the Fouta Djallon Highlands, and it is meant to help policy makers improve natural resource management in the region. The portal includes elements related to general information on the system, a metadata catalogue for retrieving data, and a WebGIS platform for displaying data.
The portal was announced at a regional conference and training held in Dakar, Senegal from 10-16 December 2012. Participants from seven countries representing a collection of interest groups attended the conference, which was followed by a technical training for 20 experts. The project is implemented by the African Union (AU), the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), and receives funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The project, which will run for ten years, is funded in two phases and is active in 10 sites across participating countries; the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone. [Mountain Partnership Press Release] [Fouta Djallon Highlands Integrated Natural Resources Management Project Website]