Landscape and Ecosystems Thematic Lead Interview -- Issifou Alfari

For more information about this SERVIR service area campaign, click here.

Name/Title
Issifou Alfari, Co-Chief of Party for SERVIR-West Africa

What is your educational background?
Computer Science, with a specialization in Remote Sensing and GIS

What do you do in your current position? What are you working on now?
Co-Chief of Party for SERVIR-West Africa and I am also in charge of overseeing the "Landscape of West Africa Atlas."

What are the biggest landscape/ecosystem challenges in West Africa? How can GIS and remote sensing technologies help address these problems?
The biggest challenges are land degradation: deforestation, fragmentation of natural habitats, soil erosion, and rapid urbanization. GIS helps address these challenges through image acquisition and interpretation, as well as the ability to study land cover changes over time using remote sensing and GIS.

What specific tools and technologies are you using to solve these problems?
SERVIR-West Africa uses ArcGIS, in addition to other landscape classification system software.

What do you find unique about your work with SERVIR?
SERVIR is focused on solving real-world development problems, with input from key stakeholders.

How will SERVIR and the wider GIS community benefit from the new services and applications you are developing?
The outputs will be disseminated through the internet and workshops so that a maximum number of people can benefit from our services.

What are some of the main achievements of your work so far in this thematic area?
The services related to this thematic area have just started in the SERVIR-West Africa hub, so we do not have a significant number of achievements to report on so far, apart from the many training courses we are conducting. But, stay tuned!

This interview was conducted by Abdoul Aziz Boubacar Mainassara at SERVIR-West Africa. It has been lightly edited for style and length by SERVIR Global.