Global Forest Watch (GFW) is an open-source web application to monitor global

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s in near real-time. GFW is an initiative of the

World Resources Institute The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth. Subsequent presidents include Jonathan Lash (1993– ...

(WRI), with partners including

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...

, the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

(UMD),

Esri Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

, Vizzuality and many other academic, non-profit, public, and private organizations.

History

Global Forest Watch originally began in 1997 as an initiative to establish a global forest monitoring network, convened by the World Resources Institute and partners. The initiative was rebooted in 2013 with data from the

Center for Global Development The Center for Global Development (CGD) is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., and London that focuses on international development. History It was founded in November 2001 by former senior U.S. official Edward W. Scott, directo ...

derived from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

MODIS The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a satellite-based sensor used for earth and climate measurements. There are two MODIS sensors in Earth orbit: one on board the Terra (EOS AM) satellite, launched by NASA in 19 ...

sensor, with additional layers subsequently added from

/ UMD,

Imazon Imazon (Amazon Institute of People and the Environment, ) is a non-profit organisation based in Belém, Pará, Brazil, that is dedicated to conserving the Amazon rainforest. It has published many reports on aspects of conserving the Amazon environm ...

, Terra-i, and

. The second iteration of GFW was released in February 2014, and continues to add information at multiple time scales and spatial resolutions to track deforestation. The GFW Commodities and GFW Fires sub-pages were subsequently released. GFW contributed notable data and analysis to reporting on the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis, including revealing that approximately 35% of the fires in Indonesia occurred in agricultural concessions. This reporting linked the forest fires to specific companies.

Use cases

The GFW platform has been used in a number of notable applications. The forest change data have been used to measure global deforestation rates and to detect and monitor illegal clearing activity, primarily in Indonesia. The

Active Fires data, displayed within GFW Fires, have been used to identify illegal burning that has caused the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis (see Haze crisis). Multinational companies use the GFW platform to track their supply chain, purportedly ensuring that they meet "no deforestation" commitments.

Data sets

There are currently five categories of data sets available on the GFW site, which are updated at various frequencies and available at various spatial resolutions.

Forest Change Data

* Brazilian Amazon SAD alerts * Near-global QUICC alerts * Humid tropics FORMA alerts * Tree cover gain * Latin America Terra-i alerts * Tree cover loss * NASA Active Fires * Guatemala Forest Change 2001–2010 * USA land cover change 2001 to 2011

Forest Cover Data

* Tropical forest carbon stocks (2000) * Indonesia primary forest (2000) * Indonesia peat lands (2002) * Indonesia land cover (2006) *

Mangrove forest Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangrove trees cannot withsta ...

s * Tree cover (2000) * Intact Forest Landscapes (2000) * Brazilian Amazon SAD alerts * USA Land Cover (2011) * Global Land Cover * Cameroon Forest Management Units * Guatemala Forest Cover * Romania tree cover

Forest Use Data

Logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksWood fiber Wood fibres (also spelled wood fibers, see spelling differences) are usually cellulosic elements that are extracted from trees and used to make materials including paper. The end paper product (paper, paperboard, tissue, cardboard, etc.) dictate ...

concessions (select countries) *

Mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

concessions (select countries) *

Oil palm ''Elaeis'' () is a genus of palms, called oil palms, containing two species, native to Africa and the Americas. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. Description Mature palms are single-stemmed, and can gro ...

concessions (select countries) *

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

concessions (select countries) * Major

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

s * Forest titles (select countries)

Conservation Data

* Tiger Conservation Landscapes * Terai Arc Landscape Corridors * Indonesia forest moratorium *

Biodiversity hotspot A biodiversity hotspot is a ecoregion, biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after ...

s * Alliance for Zero Extinction Sites *

Protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

s * Endemic Bird Areas * Indonesia oil palm suitability standard

People Data

* Resource rights (select countries) * Indigenous lands (select countries) *

Population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

(2000)

Awards

* Computerworld Editors' Choice Award (2015) * United Nations Big Data Climate Challenge (2014) * Boreal Award, GFW Canada (2010)

References

{{Authority control Deforestation