Data management and modelling using remote sensing and GIS for tropical forest land inventory. Proceedings of the FIMP-INTAG International conference. October, 26-29, 1998, Jakarta, Indonesia

The themes of this conference were timely for Indonesian forestry. Demands for better availability and accessibility of tropical forest data and information are increasing in line with the concerns of the world community on the vital roles played by tropical forests in the welfare of people. The availability of better forest data and information is critical in this context. Forest data are the basis for creative and innovative management planning to achieve societal, economical, and ecological forest management objectives effectively and efficiently. Data management should be associated with users. An Integrated Forest Resource Information System will help decision makers in forestry only if the system can generate information that supports the decision making process. Discussions on the subject in these proceedings are highly relevant. Although current Remote Sensing/GIS technology is more appropriate for small scale data we hope that future development will provide more detailed forest data and information. Until that happens, this conference will have provided an update on the present usefulness and shortcomings of the existing technologies. In Indonesia, these technologies were applied nation-wide when we established a National Forest Inventory completed in 1997. Our experience indicated that RS/GIS provided important tools to handle forest data, especially the spatial data needed to support policy formulation and the decision making processes. Even though ten years experience in this field is a relatively short period we nevertheless realised, through this project, that many things still needed to be done and followed up; among others, how to manage continuous increases of data, how to combine several sources and how to assess accuracy of the information produced. These aspects are well covered in the present proceedings