A new collaboration between a technology company and a global research nonprofit offers nongovernmental organizations and researchers free, high-resolution data that maps previously inaccessible forest areas. Announced amid a growing urgency for better monitoring capabilities, could it help reach the 2030 target of zero forest loss?
The canopy height map — developed by Meta and the World Resources Institute’s Global Restoration Initiative and Land & Carbon Lab — aims to set a new baseline for tree monitoring, helping stakeholders to make better-informed decisions about land use.
With only six years left for the leaders of 145 countries to meet the 2030 target of reaching zero forest loss, the 4% decrease achieved in 2023 will not do. Accurate and detailed forest mapping is key, but current satellite data is at 10- or 30-meter resolution — which fails to capture detailed images of over a third of global forest cover.