The inaugural meeting of the LCDB Governance Group was held at the Ministry of Science and Innovation on Tuesday 1st November.

On the 11^th August a four-year Land Cover mapping and Research Programme was launched with a joint announcement by Environment Minister Nick Smith and Science and Innovation Minister Wayne Mapp. The programme will receive $1 million a year over the next four years for the application of "the best in modern technology" to the mapping of New Zealand's changing land cover.

“The four-year Land Cover Research Programme will provide vital information about our rural and urban environment for the natural resources sector, regional councils and research organisations to use,” Smith said. “Using the best in modern technology, we can thoroughly map New Zealand’s changing land use so we can quantify the pressures on water quality and biodiversity.”

“Up-to-date information about vegetation, water sources and the built environment is critical for the success of natural resource industries such as agriculture and forestry,” said Mapp.

The Land Cover Research Programme will be led by Landcare Research, with the involvement of the Ministry for the Environment, the Department of Conservation, the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry, The Fire Service and regional councils. It will build on the Ministry for the Environment’s Land Use and Carbon Analysis System (LUCAS), developed to report New Zealand’s carbon emissions to the United Nations, by re-using imagery collected for the 2008 and 2012 LUCAS time steps.