The new generation of Above Ground Biomass measurement missions offers great promise to forest monitoring capabilities. The LSI-VC Forests and Biomass Subgroup and WGCV Land Product Validation subgroup will work with GFOI Capacity Building partners, including the World Bank and FAO, to accelerate the policy relevance and application of these missions through strong communications, education, and interchange between GFOI countries and space data providers.
In response to strong demand from stakeholders, the LSI-VC Forests and Biomass subgroup will develop guidance regarding the differences, advantages, and disadvantages of biomass maps from missions like GEDI, NISAR, and BIOMASS. The aim is to create a single slide deck (10–20 slides) explaining these missions and their products. This will be an important outreach resource. Other such educational materials will be developed to help inform countries as to the opportunities ahead.
The CEOS representatives to GFOI will continue to advocate new space agency biomass products and promote the CEOS Biomass Protocol. Measures to address the policy relevance of the data from the relevant missions will be identified, making best use of the user and policy interface provided by GFOI. Additional direct linkages to UNFCCC and IPCC will continue to be explored.
The motivation for this activitiy is to encourage increased use of these data sources in submissions to the 2028 Global Stocktake.