On April 6th, members of FFC Board (Madelaine Westwood) and FFC Trust (Joanne Wheeler) gave a talk within the theme of 'Current Issues in Earth Observation' at the European Space Agency conference held at Surrey University in UK. Delegates from all over Europe listened as Madelaine and Joanne were joined by eminent speakers to present talks ranging from global monitoring using satellites, access to satellite data, environmental treaties, earth observation data used in courts and benefits in practise. Under the heading 'Benefits in Practise', Madelaine and Joanne spoke about the educational use of satellite tracking for habitats and wild animals, the use of such information and images in filmmaking and how this information may be used in future in a conservation context. The conference created lively discussions and opened the way for FFC and ESA to collaborate on educational projects in the future.

ECSL UK National Point of Contract - Conference on Current Issues in Earth Observation

The day after the European Rounds of the Manfred Lachs Space Moot Court Competition, the ECSL UK NPOC held a conference at Surrey University, UK on "Current Issues in Earth Observation". The students who had competed in the moot competition and their judges could now relax and enjoy the presentations of the speakers. They were joined in the audience by several people from the Surrey Space Centre, based at the University, and also several members of the UK NPOC.

Tony Ballard, Chairman of the UK NPOC, chaired the conference and introduced the various speakers after providing an introduction to the topics ahead.

Gordon Campbell, from ESRIN, provided an excellent introduction to the topic illustrating some of the applications of earth observation and the services that could be produced, concentrating on GMES. He showed some of the information-rich views of the Earth that could be supplied by ESA satellites, on a variety of different scales from the local (even pinpointing subsidence causing structural damage to individual buildings, or even parts of them) to the global. At low cost, such satellites can supply continuously updated data across the whole planet, including terrain too difficult or inaccessible for ground-based monitoring.

Professor Ray Harris of University College, London then discussed the challenges of access to earth observation data to users and potential users. He examined issues of ownership, privacy, intellectual property rights, standards, distribution, pricing and archiving, leading to much discussion from the audience. He then presented some of the key recommendations of an International Council for Science (ICSU) report on scientific data and information that examined policy for data access for all scientific data and assessed how the policy for scientific data interacts with policies on remote sensing data.

Some of the benefits of earth observation in practice were then presented by Joanne Wheeler, ESA and a wild-life filmmaker, Madelaine Westwood from Filmmakers For Conservation (FFC). They discussed the use of earth observation data in wildlife conservation and in education activities, with particular examples from ESA and UNESCO's Build Environment for Gorilla (BEGo) project, and the work Madelaine has done with the FFC Initiative - Great Apes Film Initiative (GAFI), which had 11 films broadcast in the Congo and Cameroon and screenings at Limbe Wildlife Centre to educate local school children on the apes and their conservation.

Gordon Campbell continued his presentations by discussing how earth observation data could be used monitor compliance with environmental treaties. As the information provided by satellites is sound, systematic and rigorous it can be relied upon, once integrated with other data sources, to establish general consensus on the current state of the environment and as a basis for efficient environmental modelling systems that can aid decision making processes.

He mentioned the Treaty Enforcement Services using Earth Observation (TESEO) initiative set up by ESA in 2001, which works with various treaty secretariats to develop satellite-based services for their operational requirements. International treaties that it addresses include the 1971 Ramsar Convention on Global Wetlands, the 1992 Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1996 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

David Sagar then presented a paper written by Ray Purdy of University College, London, who was unable to attend, on the use of earth observation data as evidence in courts, its admissibility and the possible breach of human rights legislation. This presentation also stimulated much discussion that, after closing remarks were presented by Andre Farand, ESA, was continued round the lunch table.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable conference, which provokes much discussion. Perhaps the most interesting achievement was simply bringing together lawyers, scientists, engineers, academics specialising in the area, students, insurance brokers and even filmmakers to discuss how each could bring their own talents and thoughts to the subject for the benefit of the global community.