Beyond tree cover: mapping the world’s forest types

Google DeepMind and Google Research, with the World Resources Institute and IIASA, released Forest Typology (ForTy) 2020, a global map that sorts every 10-by-10-meter patch of land into six forest and land-use types.

• The map answers a question tree-cover maps cannot: whether a patch is primary forest, naturally regenerating forest, planted forest, plantation forest, tree crops and agroforestry, or other land.
• The partners say it is a key baseline for the EU's deforestation regulation, which requires products such as coffee, cocoa and palm oil to come from land that was not forest in 2020.
• An early time series tracks yearly changes from 2017 to 2025, showing for the first time at 10-meter detail what replaced lost forest, whether a timber plantation, tree-crop farm or other land.