PAWAR in Itombwe Nature Reserve

Overview | Data

Objectives

  • To satisfy the overarching goal of the WHRC and its collaborators with respect to the PAWAR project in general and Itombwe Nature Reserve in particular: to allow better management of the Albertine Rift's network of protected areas by identifying the locations of active deforestation, as well as by aiding predictoins of potential future threats.
  • To assist the Wildlife Conservation Society in its effort to survey the flora and fauna of the newly-established Itombwe protected area.

Products

  • Remotely-sensed images comprised of elevn Aster tiles in three swaths collected in 2004 and 2006. These images can be used to detect vegetation density and landforms, as well as to delineate the most recently updated boundary of the newly gazetted Itombwe Reserve.
  • An indexed map series that divides the Itombwe massif into 84 grids at a scale of 1:50,000. These maps will be used by researchers and managers to design tracsects and conduct surveys in order to gather data on vegetation, fauna, signs of disturbance, and other vital characteristics of the landscape.
  • A land cover map derived from the United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization's (UN FAO) Africover land use and land cover data; this map delineates begetation classes withinin and around the Itombwe Massif.

The boundary of the Itombwe Forest Reserve show over Aster imagery collected in 2004 and 2006. Town and village and road data were obtained from the FAO. The northern edge of Lake Tanganyika is visible in the eastern portion of the image.

 

A land cover map of the Itombwe Forest Reserve and the surrounding region. Data are from the FAO's Africover product.