FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 21, 1998

Aeroterra Announces Two National Forest Inventory Projects

Buenos Aires, Argentina. - For the first time in its history, Argentina has begun national inventories of its forest resources, both native forests and plantation forests.

A team of 23 specialists-Argentinean and Canadian-with the help of satellite images and aerial photographs, countless field data, digital image processing, GIS, and other tools of high precision, are mapping local forest stands and plantations nationwide.

Both forest inventory projects are financed, in part, through a loan from the World Bank for the Argentinean Forest Development Plan. Central to this Plan is the Forest Inventory, integrated through a Geographical Information System (GIS).

The plantation forests project is executed through the Secretary of Agriculture (SAGPyA); and the native forest project is executed through the Secretary of Natural Resources (SRNyDS). Following competitive procurement, both SAGPyA and SRNyDS awarded contracts to an integrated consortium lead by AEROTERRA, S.A. (Argentina), with two Canadian firms: Simons Reid Collins (Vancouver, BC), and Tecsult Foresterie Inc. Ltée (Montreal).

The plantation and native forest inventory projects are scheduled for two and three years respectively, and will produce comprehensive information on the location of categorized forest types, and volumetric estimates by species groups and by Provinces. The updated information will extend over 35,000,000 hectares (86,500,000 acres) of native forests and areas suitable for forest cultivation, plus approximately 700,000 hectares (1,730,000 acres) of plantation forestlands in Argentina. Given the different objectives and areas of the two projects, native forests will be mapped at 1:250,000 scale, and cultivated forests at 1:100,000 scale.

Argentine government officials have reported that the projects seek to determine "how much native forest we have left, where they are and in what condition they are, and to evaluate them as true ecosystems which are the keys for the continuity of life".

For cultivated forests, it is the first time a national inventory has been compiled. "It will help to guide the sustainable development of forest activity and to know with accuracy the structure and size of plantations. Up to now it is considered that there are between 700,000 and 800,000 hectares forested, but it is not known with accuracy how many there are in fact," comments Carlos Viola, president of Aeroterra.

To support reforestation, the studies will examine the appropriate use of land to know where one can reforest. Distributed almost proportionately among its regions, Argentina has about 20 million hectares of soils with aptitude for forest cultivation. Argentina is also one of few countries whose forest products industry has significant capacity for growth through appropriate reforestation and sustainable management.

The interpretation / classification activities are based on Landsat 5 TM images provided by the Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE). Digital images are georeferenced and processed using ERDAS Imagine 8.3.1 (Erdas, Atlanta, GA) to separate 10 to 20 species groups, and development of stand heights and densities. Field sampling involves conventional methods combined with digital image-interpretation and digital maps. All data are integrated into a GIS based on Arc/Info technologies (ESRI, Redlands, CA).

Also included in the inventory is an index of forest productivity of specific sites using measurements of primary species planted in Argentina during the past 15 years.

Additional activities include development of remote sensing and cartographic databases for a new Atlas of Forest Productivity on CD-ROM. This Atlas will compliment existing Atlases on CD-ROM previously developed by Aeroterra, with INTA (Soils Atlas of Argentina), and INDEC (Statistical Atlas of Argentina). The Forest Atlas will contribute to formulating policies and strategies for forestry management and expansion as well as present and future investments in Argentina's forestry sector. According to Viola, Argentina has a great forest potential and many companies, both domestic and international, are interested.

Throughout the projects, the Aeroterra lead consortium will also devote special attention to the training of technicians at both SAGPyA and SRNyDS, transferring technologies and developing procedures for updating the inventories at the national level every five years as well as periodic updates of regions and provinces.

This meticulous survey of Argentina's forest resources will allow reliable data and analyses to develop policies on use, exploitation and development of the forestry sector. Transferring the inventories in an integrated GIS to the responsible Secretaries, as well as the commercial forestry sector, will provide political, physical, environmental, economic and spatial information for sustainable management of these renewable resources.

Aeroterra, founded in 1973, is the leading company in Latin America providing geoprocessing services and products to diverse markets, including forestry, agriculture, petroleum exploration, mining, urban and rural cadasters, telecommunications and business geographics. Aeroterra is also the exclusive representative for Argentina and Uruguay of the leading geoinformation companies, including ESRI, ERDAS and Radarsat.