What If Digital Mapping Could Save Our Forests? Libraries’ GIS Day Conference to Feature Ideas Festival Speaker

October 24th, 2018

Editor’s Note: Dr. Nicolas Picard’s presentation is the keynote address for Purdue Libraries’ GIS Day Conference 2018 and is part of the Ideas Festival, the centerpiece of Purdue’s Giant Leaps Sesquicentennial Campaign. Learn more about the GIS Day Conference 2018 at www.lib.purdue.edu/gis/gisday/gisday_2018_college_program.

Wildlife experts estimate the Earth loses 18.7 million acres of forests per year — the equivalent of 27 soccer fields every minute — through rampant deforestation. Tropical forestry expert and researcher Nicolas Picard, an official with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), believes the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can lead to a more sustainable future by improving forest management through the mapping, analysis, and oversight of global forest environments.

Dr. Picard’s keynote address will start at 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, in Stewart Center 206 and is open free to the public.

The GIS Day Conference 2018 is co-sponsored by the Purdue College of Agriculture and the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, the Graduate School at Purdue University, Purdue Honors College, Purdue’s Krannert School of Management, Purdue Polytechnic Institute, and the Purdue College of Veterinary Medicine.

About the Keynote Speaker

Picard is currently Ingénieur for the French Ministry of Agriculture, Agrifood and Forest, and in charge of the Secretariat of the Committee on Mediterranean Forestry Questions-Silva Mediterranea within the Forestry Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).