The Rwanda Water and Forestry Authority has organized workshop for the Global Monitoring for Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and Africa Project.

This one-day workshop, that has taken place in Home Inn Hotel located in Musanze, has gathered different institutions ' representatives from MoE, MoD/ Reserve Force, MINAGRI, UR, RWFA, RLMUA and GMES Africa.

“It is the workshop which aims to convene stakeholders to discuss and have concrete strategies and methodologies to use Earth Observation products in wetland monitoring and assessment," explains GIS Specialist Christelle Umwali.

She adds that RWFA and stakeholders could be familiarized with the activities, services and products of the project besides being an opportunity to identify areas of interest through user management.

GMES & Africa is an initiative contributing to the Earth Observation domain of the African Outer Space Flagship program. GMES & Africa initiative builds on the existing projects in the continent that have generated intellectual and infrastructural capacities in use of Earth Observation applications to enhance decision making in environmental management, through provision of evidence-based information.

The expanded rationale of GMES & Africa is to continue addressing the growing needs of African countries to access and use space-derived data for sustainable development policies through deployment and integration of Earth Observation systems responding to African requirements and needs in identified nine thematic areas.

Currently, the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) has signed an agreement with AUC GMES and Africa Program as well as Partner organizations to implement this project.