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GIS Unit - Information Services
Group
Center for International Forestry Research
(CIFOR)
The GIS Unit, within the Center for International
Forestry Research (CIFOR) was established in 1993 to assist the
CIFOR scientists and partners by providing quality assistance
in spatial analysis, remote sensing and geospatial research. The
unit is increasingly dealing with a wide array of GIS
services, large amounts of spatial data (hardcopy maps and
files) and with the management of spatial databases and online web
mapping services.
The GIS Unit has defined two main goals,
(1) to provide quality GIS support to the research division and (2)
to improve the spatial data accessibility by establishing a spatial
data management system, based on international standards and best
practices to support a wide range of forest related geo-spatial
sources and to stimulate stakeholders to provide data.
In
order to achieve these goals, we identified objectives in the field
of Geospatial Research (land change, land usage, land cover change),
infrastructure (the design of the spatial data management system),
international standards (FGDC, ISO and OpenGIS), data sharing
catalog initiatives (Global Forest Information Service, Consortium
for Spatial Information) and knowledge dissemination (raising
awareness and training on the use of the new geospatial information
systems).
The unit's target audience are primarily the
scientists at CIFOR, as well as a diverse set of stakeholders at
local, national and international level (government analysts,
conservation and development NGOs, producer organizations,
researchers) needing forest-related geospatial information for land
use planning, forest resource assessment, carbon trading and
biodiversity conservation.
Some examples of the tools and
services are:
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