Aerial photographs for cannabis survey in Nigeria

In 1999, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) started assisting UN member states in the monitoring of illicit crop cultivation within the framework of the illicit crop monitoring programme (ICMP). Since then, crop monitoring surveys have been published annually in Afghanistan, Bolivia, Colombia, Myanmar and Lao PDR and for some years in Morocco. The surveys deliver relevant statistics to the  world on the extent of the illicit drug production in a country. An important part of the surveys is based upon images obtained through remote sensing techniques, i.e. satellite images or aerial photos taken from planes or helicopters.

In 2013, the UNODC started an illicit crop monitoring project Nigeria. Nigerian illicit cannabis cultivation is concentrated in five states: Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo. The area estimation will be based on the identification of the crops on very high resolution remote sensing images. The areas to be surveyed are selected on a sampling-based approach, since the available resources are insufficient to cover the entire area with images. The acquisition of the images should be done when the crop can be identified in the images following the crop calendars of cannabis. However, due to the expected variation in crop stages, two time periods are identified for acquisition of the images: one when most of the crops are expected to be observed (August 2014) and the other when it is expected to observe additional crops with late maturity (November 2014). The most secure and efficient way to obtain remotely sensed images in these conditions is to use aerial photography.

The United Nations Office at Vienna Procurement Unit (UNOV PU) on the behalf of the UNODC is  seeking qualified and interested companies for the provision of digital aerial photographs for cannabis survey in Nigeria.

Please note that this is not an invitation for submission of a proposal. This is a request for Expressions of Interest (EOI) in order to identify qualified vendors interested in participating in the solicitation.

Interested vendors must provide the completed Vendor Response Form (attached below). UNOV PU will examine this EOI and reserves the right to select the invitees for competitive bidding. Accordingly, an expression of interest does not automatically warrant an interested vendor's participation in the competitive bidding exercise.

UNOV PU reserves the right to change or cancel any of this requirement at any time during the EOI and/or solicitation process.