What happened in Brazil – University of Campinas (São Paulo), in July 2015?

Following the last GEOGLAM RAPP workshop in Paris last year (at INRA), the 3rd RAPP workshop was held in Brazil during 3 days (20-22 July 2015). It has been co-hosted by the University of Campinas in São Paulo, and NIPE (Interdisciplinary Center of Energy Planning, in Campinas – Brazil), with a generous funding from FAPESP (Sao Paulo Research Foundation). CSIRO (Australia) has collaborated closely with Unicamp to help organising the event.

This GEOGLAM RAPP workshop was the occasion to strengthen the links between the Community of Practice, to review progress and continue the establishment of a Global Rangeland and Pasture Productivity monitoring system, under GEOGLAM and the Group on Earth Observation (GEO).

Around 40 participants from all over the world (Brazil and other South American countries, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia) attended the workshop. About 20 people gave a speech or a presentation on various subjects related to GEOGLAM RAPP: some very technical on their own scientific research project, some on national views and proposed pilot sites, and other on global/national institutional and political sides.

Group picture – GEOGLAM RAPP in Campinas (Brazil)

The presentations (see details below) generated very fruitful workings sessions and proactive discussions, with promising ideas for the very near future of the project. New pilot sites have been proposed and will be described later on the website after consultation and validation.

The CSIRO team (as the initial interim task to lead the project) was very pleased with the workshop’s outcomes. CSIRO looks forward to working closer and deeper with all motivated members of this community of practice, and especially with his Brazilian partners.

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Please find here most of the presentations in PDF (click on the blue links when available) which have been shown and discussed during the workshop – following the agenda‘s order (some tiny changes occurred during the workshop) :

Monday 20th July – DAY 1

1. The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and Bioenergy Research In São Paulo, Brazil – Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, Scientific Director – São Paulo Research Foundation, FAPESP (Brazil)
2. GEOGLAM Overview – Michel Deshayes, Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative – GEOGLAM (Switzerland)
3. Rationale for Rangelands and Pasture Productivity task, global context and workplan – Alex Held, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation – CSIRO (Australia)
4. Status of GEOGLAM Dashboard  AND National Australian rangelands monitoring activities – Juan Pablo Guerschman, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation – CSIRO (Australia)
5. Existing regional, national or global rangeland and pasture monitoring projects (Brazil and Argentina):
   1. Rangeland & Pasture Monitoring in Brazil – Laerte Guimarães Ferreira, Goias Federal University – UFG (Brazil)
   2. Monitoring forage production in Argentina – Mariano Oyarzabal, Agricultural Plant Physiology and Ecology Research Institute – IFEVA (Argentina)
6. GEOGLAM RAPP Productivity and Mapping of Cultivated Pastures from Cerrado: Existing Data, Difficulties and Possibilities – Edson E. Sano, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – Embrapa Cerrados (Brazil)
7. Existing Regional Global or National Rangeland and Pasture monitoring projects (South Africa and China)
   1. Toward a Coordinated Rangelands Observations and Monitoring System for South Africa – Clement Adjorlolo, South African National Space Agency – SANSA (South Africa)
   2. Current status of grassland above ground biomass estimation in China – Dan Zhao, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (China)
8. The Global Calculator: A new approach to model pasture dynamics – Alexandre Strapasson, Imperial College London (UK)
9. Remote sensing monitoring of forage production in Uruguayan ranchers: state of the art and challenges – Marcelo Pereira, Instituto Plan Agropecuario – IPA (Uruguay)
10. Rangeland & pasture monitoring: activities in Colombia – Mauricio Alvarez de Leon, Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria – Corpoica (Colombia)
11. Modelling sustainable grazing land management – Ben Henderson, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation – CSIRO (Australia)
12. INPE´s satellite data available for agriculture and pasture monitoring – João Vianei Soares, National Institute for Space Research – INPE (Brazil)

Tuesday 21st July – DAY 2

1. GEOGLAM RAPP Communication and Coordination Strategy – Flora Kerblat, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation – CSIRO (Australia)
2. Current status of global rangelands and livestock models and integration with remote sensing – Marcelo Galdos, Brazilian Bioethanol Science and Technology Laboratory – CTBE (Brazil)
3. (remotely) Rangelands and Pastures monitoring from Remote Sensing – Carlos Di Bella, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria – INTA (Argentina)
4. (remotely) GEOGLAM Satellite Data Acquisition Strategy and additional satellite datasets for RAPP, Alyssa Whitcraft, GEOGLAM Secretariat and University of Maryland

Wednesday 22nd July – DAY 3

1. Opportunities and challenges for incorporating territorial intelligence approaches to support policy actions and the sustainability of Brazilian pastoral systems – Geraldo B. Martha Jr., Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – Embrapa (Brazil)
2. Assessing regional GHG mitigation in grassland-based beef production in Brazil: interactions and emerging behavior – Luís Barioni, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – Embrapa (Brazil)
3. Rangeland Decision Support System Implementation in the South-western USA: Progress and Challenges – Stephen Hagen, Applied GeoSolutions (USA)