Global Forest Watch
Explore tree cover loss and gain data, recent deforestation and fire alerts, land use designations, carbon emissions, biodiversity metrics and more.
URL
https://www.globalforestwatch.org/map/
Description
As of October 2025, some of the data underlying this tool is no longer being updated due to U.S. federal funding disruptions.
This tool visualizes both historic and near real-time data. Especially when dealing with recent data, use this tool with caution. Always verify data through its original source.
Global Forest Watch is an interactive map featuring a wide variety of data layers.
On initial launch, you'll see global tree cover, tree cover loss, and tree cover gain.
The map's layers are organized into five categories:
Forest Change
Land Cover
Land Use
Climate
Biodiversity
All layers can be toggled on or off.
Each layer is listed under its corresponding category below, each with a link to more info on its data source(s), limitations, curation date and update schedule.
In the Legend panel, layers can be reordered and their opacity adjusted to help compare multiple datasets. Some layers can also be filtered by date in this panel.
Layers specific to Brazil, Cambodia, Indonesia and Peru can be accessed by clicking 'Add country' under 'Country-specific data' at the top of the layers panel.
Clicking on a region prompts an option to generate a detailed analysis of that area.
By default, the area is defined by political boundaries, but in the Analysis panel (next to Legend), you can switch to river basin or terrestrial ecoregion boundaries. Alternatively, analyze custom boundaries by uploading a geospatial file (<1MB) or by drawing your own area on the map.
Forest Change
Forest Change layers show where and how forests are lost, gained and disturbed, as well as near real-time fire alerts and more.
Layers
Disturbance Alerts
Integrated deforestation alerts: daily tree cover disturbance | global
Global vegetation disturbance alerts: weekly vegetation disturbance | global
Drivers of deforestation alerts: historical causes of deforestation (monthly updates coming soon) | select regions only
Places to watch: last month's high-priority deforestation alerts | select regions only
Fires
Fire alerts: daily active fires | global
Tree cover loss due to fire: updated annually | global
Fire Weather Index: fire danger ratings | global
Air quality index: PM2.5 air quality | global
Tree Cover Change
Tree cover gain: global
Tree cover loss: global
Emerging hot spots: statistically significant clusters of primary forest loss on a country-level basis (do not compare countries with each other) | select regions only
Net change in tree cover: global
Land Cover
Land Cover layers map the various types of natural and human-altered surfaces that cover Earth.
Layers
Tree cover: global
Tropical tree cover: higher resolution than global tree cover layer (datasets used to generate this layer use varying methodologies) | select regions only
Primary forests: the extent of primary forests in the global pan-tropical regions | select regions only
Tree cover height: global
Natural forests: global
Forest Landscape Integrity Index: forest condition as a reflection of human altercation | global
Intact forest landscapes: unfragmented forest landscapes that retain native biodiversity and show no signs of human altercation | global
Land cover: as agriculture, forest, grassland, shrubland, sparse vegetation, wetland, settlement, bare, water or permanent snow/ice | global
Mangrove forests: groups of trees and shrubs that live in the coastal intertidal zone | global
Soy planted area: annual expansion of soybean plants | South America only
Tree plantations: human-planted forests and their use (e.g. oil palm, wood fiber, rubber, fruit) | select regions only
Peatlands: wetlands where waterlogged conditions prevent plant materials from fully decomposing | global
Country-specific
Brazil biomes: the boundaries of six continental biomes (Amazônia, Cerrado, Caatinga, Mata Atlântica, Pantanal and Pampa)
Land Use
Layers in this section show how and where humans use land for agriculture, forestry, mining, conservation and infrastructure.
Layers
Commodities
Logging concessions: areas allocated to companies by governments for the harvesting wood products | select regions only
Mining concessions: areas allocated to companies by governments for the extraction of minerals | select regions only
Oil palm concessions: areas allocated to companies by governments for oil palm plantations | select regions only
Mapped cocoa plots per km2: cocoa plots in the direct supply chains of 19 cocoa and chocolate companies operating | select regions of West Africa only
Palm oil mills: global
RSPO Member Concessions: areas conceded to company members of the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (certified and non-certified confessions) | select regions only
Oil and gas concessions: areas allocated to companies by governments for the exploration of oil, natural gas and other hydrocarbons | select regions of South America only
Wood fiber concessions: areas allocated to companies by governments for tree plantation related to the production of timber and wood pulp and paper products
Conservation
Protected areas: areas that are legally protected by one of various designations (e.g. national parks and wildlife reserves) | global
Infrastructure
Congo Basin logging roads: select region only
Major dams: by operational status, as new data becomes available | limited to 50 major river basins
People
Indigenous and Community Lands: global, non-comprehensive
Country-specific
Indonesia forest moratorium: area of Indonesia’s moratorium against new forest concessions, designed to protect Indonesia’s peat lands and primary natural forests from future development
Climate
Climate layers in this section show how forests store and release carbon, including greenhouse gas emissions, carbon removals, and biomass density. They also estimate the potential for new forests to absorb carbon over time.
Layers
Carbon Flux
Forest greenhouse gas emissions: annual greenhouse gases released from tree loss, excluding carbon absorbed by forest growth | global
Forest greenhouse gas net flux: the balance between the emissions of forests and the carbon they absorb | global
Forest carbon removals: total carbon dioxide absorbed by growing forests and stored in trees and their roots | global
Carbon Density
Tree biomass density: amount of carbon stored in the above-ground wood of living trees | global
Potential Carbon Gains
Potential carbon sequestration rate: estimated rates at which new forests could absorb carbon from the atmosphere and store it in trees over the first 30 years of natural growth | global, with specified data limitations
Biodiversity
Biodiversity layers provide insight into species richness, habitat ranges, conservation priorities and threats to biodiversity.
Layers
Global biodiversity intactness: how in tact ecosystems remain in light of forest changes | global
Global biodiversity significance: the relative contribution of each forest pixel to the global distributions of mammals, birds, amphibians and conifers | global
Alliance for Zero Extinction sites: critical sites for conservation that contain endangered species with limited ranges and populations found nowhere else on the planet | global
Key biodiversity areas: sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity | global
Biodiversity hotspots: regions where biodiversity conservation is most urgent | global
Endemic bird areas: regions where the ranges of multiple range-restricted bird species overlap | global
Cost
Level of difficulty
Requirements
No account is required to use this tool. Signing up allows for customized tracking and analysis of areas of interest. You can also receive optional email alerts for new deforestation events.
Limitations
Every data layer has its own limitations, which are detailed on its info page. You can reach these pages through the layer links above, or by clicking the information icon to the right of each layer toggle.
Guide
Global Forest Watch provides step-by-step instructions on how to use the map.
The Global Forest Watch Fire Report Map is mentioned in Wim Zwijnenburg's Bellingcat article Black Gold Burning: In Search Of South Sudan’s Oil Pollution
Tool provider
World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.
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