Networking session at Living Planet Symposium 2025 spotlights innovative tools, real-world applications, and collaborative momentum.
Author: Gesche Schifferdecker
At the Living Planet Symposium 2025, a packed Room 0.14 came to life early Thursday morning as stakeholders from across the forest, climate, and remote sensing sectors gathered for a networking session titled “Unlocking the Power of EO for Forest Carbon Monitoring.” Hosted by the European Space Agency’s Forest Carbon Monitoring (FCM) project, the session combined expert presentations, dynamic panel discussions, and audience engagement, showcasing how Earth Observation (EO) is transforming forest biomass and carbon monitoring.
Opening the session, Gesche Schifferdecker of the European Forest Institute framed the discussion: “From local forest owners to national agencies, the needs are diverse. What we require is not just data, but an adaptable toolset.”
A Toolset with Purpose
Jukka Miettinen, FCM Project Manager from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, presented the FCM project’s evolving architecture: a modular, accessible EO-based toolkit designed to deliver forest carbon monitoring insights across diverse contexts. The platform’s goals are as ambitious as they are practical – support policy compliance, improve MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, Verification), and enable smarter, data-driven forest management.
Miettinen emphasized: “We’re not just producing data; we’re delivering usable insights, whether you're in a government ministry, a certification body, or a smallholder community.”
Use Cases in Norway and the Amazon
Two compelling case studies illustrated FCM’s flexibility in real-world scenarios. Zsofia Koma of the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) demonstrated how UNet-based forest mapping, combined with a model-assisted estimation and data assimilation approach, provides greater accuracy – especially in high-volume forest areas – than traditional methods. The Norwegian use case not only improves biomass estimates but also enables refinement of county-level reporting for national inventory systems.
In Colombia, Alejandra Monsalve and Basanta Gautam from South Pole outlined how EO and field-based methods are being used to meet Verra’s evolving carbon monitoring standards. By integrating two-step sampling, visual interpretation, and field measurements, South Pole’s approach illustrates how dynamic baselines and EO advancements can adapt to stricter carbon accounting demands.
Figure 1. Example of results achieved in Norway with UNet modelling.
Panel: Where Policy, Practice, and Technology Intersect
The panel featuring Alessandro Cescatti (Joint Research Centre, EC), Benjamin White (Forest Stewardship Council), and Miquel Fletas Torrent (Forest Ownership Centre, Catalonia) tackled the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Cescatti underscored the urgency: “Policy is moving fast – from CRCF to EUDR. Earth Observation is not optional anymore. Spatial granularity is key for actionable climate decisions.”
White, from FSC, highlighted a critical concern for the carbon market: trust. “The investor community wants certainty, but they also need long-term data and transparency. EO can offer that – if integrated well.” He added that for EO to truly drive integrity in certification, tools must be accessible not just to scientists, but to smallholders and indigenous communities as well.
From a regional perspective, Torrent sees FCM as a cost-effective solution for operational needs like storm damage monitoring, thinning assessments, and management planning. “What’s exciting is the potential to unify carbon, biodiversity, and water services in a single credit system. FCM tools can help to make that measurable.”
Bridging the Technology Adoption Gap
In the open-floor Q&A, questions ranged from policy relevance to practical implementation. Stakeholders asked how EO tools could help meet compliance with EU climate regulations, how to overcome language and knowledge barriers in forest communities, and how to deal with shifting technologies and uncertain baselines in MRV projects.
Takeaways and Calls to Action
The session closed with reflections that emphasized partnership and persistence. Miquel Torrent called for tools to do more precise monitoring on the ground, including of slow-growing species, to make this approach attractive to small-scale forest owners. Ben White advocated for an EO-powered “community of practice” that includes smallholders. Alessandro Cescatti summed it up: “The real step forward is not technological – it’s institutional. We need integrated information flows, mutual trust, and sincere collaboration.”
As the session ended, participants left not only with deeper insights into the power of Earth Observation, but also with a clear message: the tools exist, but there is a need for communication and transparency about their limits. However, with the upcoming policies it is time to scale up. Whether it's forest owners in Catalonia, policymakers in Brussels, or project developers in the Amazon, the FCM project’s vision is clear – measurable, verifiable, and equitable forest carbon monitoring is within reach, and Earth Observation will lead the way.