Training on the use of UAVs for forest management and monitoring, biodiversity monitoring in Thua Thien Hue province

Within the framework of training activities on technologies related to forest monitoring, the VFBC Project in Thua Thien Hue province funded by USAID organized “Training on the use of drones for forest management and monitoring, biodiversity monitoring in Thua Thien Hue province”, from March 26, 2024 to March 29, 2024, at Parkview Hotel, Hue City and from March 31, 2024 to April 3, 2024 at Bach Ma National Park, Phu Loc district.

The participants are the Forest Rangers of the Forest Protection Department and Forest Protection Districts and the technical staff of the Bach Ma National Park Management Board. The training course has 29 participants. The lecturer is Mr. Vu Van Thai, an expert in remote sensing and GIS currently working at Dong Xanh Consulting and Development Company Limited.

The trainees were introduced to UAVs, equipment disassembly and assembly, flight safety, and the regulations on flight licenses in Vietnam. Trainees tested control of UAVs on simulation software and practiced using UAVs provided by the trainer and the Thua Thien Hue Forest Protection Department.

After studying the theory, the trainees used the Mavic 3 Enterprise device to verify forest changes. The students selected two areas where the Thua Thien Hue Forest Protection Department needed to verify forest changes to conduct flights as an exercise in Phu Loc district, Thua Thien Hue province. Trainees have combined photos, processed photos on computers, and opened them on forest monitoring software to check and use this data as input to update forest changes in 2024. At Bach Ma National Park, trainees used the Matrice 30 Thermal aircraft to inspect the streamside area near Mo Rang to check the current status of the forest.

After the training course, students have mastered manual flight operations to master the equipment in all situations, driving the equipment to required locations to serve the monitoring and firefighting tasks; students also know how to create automatic flight missions in designated areas to perform tasks of verifying forest changes, forest status, checking progress or accepting planted forests. Bach Ma National Park’s drone with thermal imaging camera also shows the potential of using drones to serve wildlife monitoring tasks.

At the end of the training course, Master Vu Van Thai recommended that the VFBC Project of Thua Thien Hue Province, the Forest Protection Department, and the Bach Ma National Park Management Board should have additional training courses or internal training to ensure that trainees use UAVs effectively. Units need to have regulations for storing batteries, and devices, managing usage, and logs of usage to ensure that the devices are used appropriately. In addition, it is recommended that UAV data management software and devices be purchased and put into use to ensure that UAV flight data is used effectively.