Renewed collaboration with Malaysia
The Wageningen University - SarVision team will renew past collaboration on radar research and mapping with Malaysia.
As a small component of a larger programme, pragmatic above ground biomass mapping approaches using optical and radar satellite imagery will be tested within the framework of the Malaysia-Netherlands Joint Committee on Carbon Emissions (JCCE).
The JCCE is an outcome of the December 2007 Malaysia-Netherlands Bilateral Delegation Meeting headed respectively by Malaysia's Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities (H.E. Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui), and The Netherlands Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (H.E. Professor Dr Jacqueline Cramer).
The JCCE can be viewed as a response to concern among EU countries regarding the impact of oil palm cultivation on peatland. The committee was formalised in July 2008 with the objectives of assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (with emphasis on CO2 and CH4) from oil palm cultivation and related indirect effects as well as coordinating collaborative research in relation to GHG emissions and their effects.