Remote Sensing in Support of Ecosystem Management Treaties
Alex
de Sherbinin, Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), CIESIN, Columbia University, adesherbinin@ciesin.columbia.edu
(Presenting)
John
Mickelson, Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), CIESIN, Columbia University, jmickelson@ciesin.columbia.edu
Concern for the impact of human activities on biodiversity helped launch the international environmental movement in the 1960s. This movement in turn helped to spawn a number of international agreements, including CITES (1968), the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1972), the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), and the Convention to Combat Desertification (1992). It has also spawned a multi-million dollar research enterprise that has grown from early roots in taxonomic fieldwork to include a large array of sub-disciplines such as conservation biology, restoration ecology, and plant and animal genetics. As technology has advanced, so has the tool kit used by conservationists. The convergence of trends in the development of environmental agreements, biodiversity research, and advanced technologies has led quite naturally to the application of remote sensing to ecosystem management and, consciously or unconsciously, to the concerns raised and “legitimized” by environmental treaties. This poster examines the application of remote sensing to environmental treaties with particular reference to pilot applications in the Laguna Merín basin, a transboundary lake and wetland complex on the border of Brazil and Uruguay.