Seasonal Tropical Wet, Moist, and Monsoonal Forest
Mapping tropical forest degradation with deep learning and Planet NICFI dataBackgroundForest degradation, driven by logging, fire, and infrastructure expansion, represents a major yet under-detected source of carbon emissions in tropical forests. Unlike deforestation, degradation involves partial canopy loss and is difficult to capture using conventional remote sensing due to small-scale disturbances and rapid vegetation recovery. Existing global products often underestimate degradation or fail to attribute its causes. Advances in high-resolution satellite imagery and deep learning provide new opportunities to improve detection accuracy. Open access copy available |
DETER-R: An Operational Near-Real Time Tropical Forest Disturbance Warning System Based on Sentinel-1 Time Series AnalysisBackgroundOpen access copy available |
Taking the pulse of Earth’s tropical forests using networks of highly distributed plotsBackgroundTropical forests play a critical but complex role in global carbon cycling, biodiversity conservation, and climate regulation. These complex dynamics are due to spatial heterogeneity and varying disturbance regimes. Traditional monitoring approaches often rely on remote sensing, which may not capture fine-scale ecological processes. In response, global scientific collaborations have developed extensive forest plot networks to monitor forest structure, biomass, and ecological changes over time. These distributed plots provide high-resolution, ground-based insights into tropical forest conditions across continents. Open access copy available |
Belize National Forest Monitoring System 2001-2020BackgroundBelize’s diverse ecosystems, land tenure systems, and land-use dynamics require a robust and flexible National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS). Early efforts focused on establishing permanent forest inventory plots in the late 1990s to address data gaps in forest structure and carbon dynamics. Over time, Belize has expanded its forest monitoring framework to integrate both ground-based and remote sensing approaches, ensuring transparency, consistency, and national ownership of forest data systems. Open access copy available |
Framework for National Forest Monitoring SystemBackgroundOpen access copy available |
Near real-time monitoring of tropical forest disturbance by fusion of Landsat, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-1 dataBackgroundAvailable with subscription or purchase |
Tipping Points of Amazonian Forests: Beyond Myths and Toward SolutionsBackgroundOpen access copy available |
Forest carbon in Amazonia: the unrecognized contribution of indigenous territories and protected natural areasBackgroundAmazonia stores an estimated 80–120 Pg of aboveground carbon, and changes in this stock have global climate implications. Indigenous territories (ITs) and protected natural areas (PNAs) together cover roughly one-third to one-half of the Amazon region, yet their specific contribution to maintaining forest carbon has often been overlooked in regional mitigation discussions. Quantifying their role is important for designing REDD+, climate finance, and land rights policies that reflect on-the-ground conservation performance. Open access copy available |
The status of forest carbon markets in Latin AmericaBackground:Latin America (LATAM) hosts some of the world’s largest tropical forests, which provide significant carbon sequestration and a major share of global forest carbon credits. Despite these benefits, deforestation and forest degradation remain critical issues. Forest carbon markets, both compliance and voluntary, have emerged as key mechanisms to finance conservation, reduce emissions, and enhance climate resilience. Open access copy available |
The drivers and impacts of Amazon forest degradationBackgroundThis research examines the growing threat of forest degradation across the Amazon, a region critical to global carbon balance and biodiversity. Beyond deforestation, widespread disturbances such as fire, edge effects, selective logging, and extreme drought have emerged as major causes of ecological and social disruption. These human-driven stressors, intensified by climate change, now affect approximately 2.5 million km²—around 38% of remaining Amazon forests—posing risks comparable to deforestation itself. Open access copy available |
