Our Work

Blue Raster helps you tell your story through interactive
mapping technology. Make your message clear, exciting,
and user-friendly for both mobile and web platforms.

Forest Stewardship Council

Promoting Sustainable Forestry Practices with High Resolution Imagery

Blue Raster is proud to have developed and supported an audit area tool for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This solution pulls data so that auditors can examine historic and current tree cover before going on site to complete their inspections. Now it’s available with high resolution imagery!

Blue Raster recently integrated high resolution satellite imagery from Planet and Sentinel into the audit area tool. This new imagery, made available by Norway’s International Climate & Forests Initiative, provides 3-meter resolution as compared to the pre-existing 10-meter resolution type used in the tool. This new level of detail in images provides an even clearer picture of forestry practices and realities.

FSC Sustainable Forestry Practices imagery

In addition to the new imagery, the team also updated and reorganized the layer panel to make the maps more user friendly. New tools that measure elevation changes were also added.

 

Learn more about this project here.

Ensuring Sustainable Forestry Practices

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an association committed to promoting environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. Using 10 guiding principles, FSC is the gold standard for certifying responsible forestry practices.  

Many of the principles and criteria measured by FSC are assessed by satellite imagery. However, much of the work was still happening with pen and paper on printed maps.  FSC wanted to combine this imagery with other data to aid in pre-audit evaluations to streamline and standardize the work that has to be done in the field. This would provide auditors with preparation and additional context for what they see in person.

Using the Blue Raster developed solution, auditors can select an their Audit Area from FSC's dataset of certified forest boundaries, upload a boundary file they have received, or draw a polygon directly on the map. The auditor also begins a digital workflow that details what aspects of the forest are being examined, what data will be used, and what reports and statistics need to be created. 

FSC Sustainable Forestry Practices

Annual tree cover loss data from the University of Maryland is automatically pulled and overlaid on the image, allowing auditors to toggle between time periods to see if the change is in line with FSC principles. Users can also perform a basic change detection by selecting before and after images, calculating a vegetation index on both, and comparing the results to identify areas with loss or gain in vegetation. Reports are automatically populated for viewing on a dashboard or for printing. 

The use of the solution expanded when the COVID pandemic limited travel and allowed auditors to continue evaluating areas remotely, creating temporary reports until they could physically get to the location. FSC is looking at ways to expand the functionality beyond auditor preparation. This system could be used to document chain of custody and detect fraud in the audit system by confirming that the harvested amount reported could have been harvested from a single location, ensuring that totals are not being laundered.  

This GIS Portal is another great tool that helps the forest industry meet our current needs for forest products without compromising the health of the world’s forests for future generations.

Read about the FSC Dashboards here.

Forest Products Without Compromise

Forest Stewardship Council's mission is to promote environmentally sound, socially beneficial and economically prosperous management of the world’s forests. Their vision is that we can meet our current needs for forest products without compromising the health of the world’s forests for future generations

Forest

The FSC Dashboards, created by the Forest Stewardship Council and Blue Raster, provide an interactive outlet to explore where FSC Certified Forests and Certificates are currently located. Sharing these ArcGIS Operations Dashboards gives viewers a look into the breadth of FSC's impact and explores physical boundaries of managed forests on top of satellite imagery. This can be analyzed against authoritative global forest extent and change data for verification and accountability purposes.

Forest Stewardship Council Dashboard

Before a forest owner or manager can certify their forest, they must meet the ten FSC principles for responsible forest management. These rules apply to all forest types and are in place to ensure environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable forest management. The FSC 10 principles are below.

The 10 rules for responsible forest management

PRINCIPLE 1:
The Organization shall comply with all applicable laws, regulations and nationally-ratified international treaties, conventions and agreements.

PRINCIPLE 2:
The Organization shall maintain or enhance the social and economic well-being of workers.

PRINCIPLE 3:
The Organization shall identify and uphold Indigenous Peoples’ legal and customary rights of ownership, use and management of land, territories and resources affected by management activities.

PRINCIPLE 4:
The Organization shall contribute to maintaining or enhancing the social and economic well-being of local communities.

PRINCIPLE 5:
The Organization shall efficiently manage the range of multiple products and services of the Management Unit to maintain or enhance long term economic viability and the range of environmental and social benefits.

PRINCIPLE 6:
The Organization shall maintain, conserve and/or restore ecosystem services and environmental values of the Management Unit, and shall avoid, repair or mitigate negative environmental impacts.

PRINCIPLE 7:
The Organization shall have a management plan consistent with its policies and objectives and proportionate to scale, intensity and risks of its management activities. The management plan shall be implemented and kept up to date based on monitoring information in order to promote adaptive management. The associated planning and procedural documentation shall be sufficient to guide staff, inform affected stakeholders and interested stakeholders and to justify management decisions.

PRINCIPLE 8:
The Organization shall demonstrate that, progress towards achieving the management objectives, the impacts of management activities and the condition of the Management Unit, are monitored and evaluated proportionate to the scale, intensity and risk of management activities, in order to implement adaptive management.

PRINCIPLE 9:
The Organization shall maintain and/or enhance the High Conservation Values in the Management Unit through applying the precautionary approach.

PRINCIPLE 10:
Management activities conducted by or for The Organization for the Management Unit shall be selected and implemented consistent with The Organization’s economic, environmental and social policies and objectives and in compliance with the Principles and Criteria collectively.