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Empowering people everywhere to protect forests and land. A World Resources Institute initiative and formerly GFW.
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Visit globalnaturewatch.org and horizon.globalnaturewatch.org to explore all our tools and data sets - they're free and easy to use! Global Forest Watch (GFW) is an interactive online forest monitoring and alert system designed to empower people everywhere with the information they need to better manage and conserve forest landscapes. Global Forest Watch uses cutting edge technology and science to provide the timeliest and most precise information about the status of forest landscapes worldwide, including near-real-time alerts showing suspected locations of recent tree cover loss. GFW is free and simple to use, enabling anyone to create custom maps, analyze forest trends, subscribe to alerts, or download data for their local area or the entire world. Users can also contribute to GFW by sharing data and stories from the ground via GFW’s crowdsourcing tools, blogs, and discussion groups. Special “apps” provide detailed information for companies that wish to reduce the risk of deforestation in their supply chains, users who want to monitor fires across Southeast Asia, and more. GFW serves a variety of users including governments, the private sector, NGOs, journalists, universities, and the general public. GFW is a growing partnership of organizations contributing data, technology, funding, and expertise. The GFW partnership is convened by the World Resources Institute.

08/03/2026

🔥 Our analysis of 25 years of fire data within Canada’s intact forests landscapes (vast, unbroken forests that play many critical roles) reveals that Canada’s annual summer season is becoming slightly longer.

Fire alert data on Global Nature Watch (formerly Global Forest Watch) shows that the average fire season over the past five years is starting one week earlier and ending one week later compared to the preceding 20 years.*

As fire seasons lengthen even just by 1-2 weeks, the risks to climate, nature and people grow as well.

More at link in our bio or go.wri.org/canadafires.

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*MODIS fire alerts within Canada’s intact forest landscapes from 2001 to 2025. Accessed on July 30, 2026. Fire season is defined as the middle 99% of alerts.

07/22/2026

Many people across Canada and the United States have experienced hazardous air quality in recent weeks as smoke has traveled from wildfires in northern and central Canada and the western United States. Unfortunately, this could just be the start of impacts in the region this year.

🔥 data on Global Nature Watch (formerly Global Forest Watch) suggests Canada's 2026 fire season is off to an early start, with over 4,000 fire alerts* observed to date in some of Canada’s most critical forests.

🔥Longer-term trends show that fire seasons are also becoming longer and more severe due to . The past five years have averaged 3x more fire alerts* by mid-July than the preceding 20 years, extending the period of risk for communities and ecosystems.

Many of the fires are occurring in Canada's intact forest landscapes (IFL), which are vast, unbroken forests that play many critical roles, including storing carbon, supporting biodiversity and sustaining livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Recent World Resources Institute data analysis shows that IFL reduction from human-ignited fires, a subset of all fires captured by fire alerts, has risen sharply in North and South America. Fires now account for nearly 40% of IFL reduction between 2020–2025, up from 21% in 2000–2013.
Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/4b98aAF

Explore near-real-time fire alerts on Global Nature Watch.
🗺️ https://bit.ly/4wchagF

*MODIS fire alerts within intact forest landscapes through July 20, 2026

07/15/2026

We are thrilled to announce our 2026-2027 recipients! 🎉

🤝 10 grantees awarded between $10-40K
🌍 7 countries represented from across the Americas, Africa and Asia
📍 44M(!) hectares of land and forest to be monitored

After an exceptionally competitive application process, we are so proud to welcome our 11th cohort of SGF grantees, a diverse group of civil society organizations who will use Global Nature Watch (formerly Global Forest Watch) tools to better protect the forests they know best.

Congratulations to this year's grantees! We look forward to seeing the incredible work you will accomplish!

InfoAmazonia
Center for Remote Sensing & Geographic Information Services - cersgis
Ecopar
Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP)
Green Development Advocates
Forest Nature and Environment Aceh
Let's Be Transformed
PILI Green Network
Tu Amazonia
Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari

Get to know the projects and the passionate people behind them in our latest blog: ➡️ https://www.globalforestwatch.org/blog/users-in-action/2026-global-nature-watch-small-grants-fund-recipients/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sgfcycle2026

05/11/2026

2025 tree cover loss data analysis in 7 charts.

Tropical primary forest loss dropped 36% in 2025, but overall loss remains high as fires pose a rising threat.

Read the full analysis at the link in bio.

04/29/2026

Tropical primary rainforest loss dropped in 2025 after record-breaking loss in 2024. But forest loss remains high, and fires pose a growing threat.

2025 data from UMD Global Land Analysis and Discovery team is now available on Global Forest Watch.

Countries like Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Malaysia are showing it’s possible to quickly slow forest loss with stronger policies and enforcement.

However, climate-driven fires are a dangerous new normal, threatening to reverse this progress. Plus, demand for commodities like cattle, soy, palm oil and gold is driving forest loss in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Read the full analysis here on World Resources Institute's living report on forests, the Global Forest Review 👉 https://bit.ly/4tEjQm7

🌎 Explore the data on Global Forest Watch: https://bit.ly/48suuUq
🌍 Learn more about how the data compares to other national estimates: https://bit.ly/3QFdAMe
🌏 Check out the data on WRI’s new innovative, AI-powered system: https://bit.ly/48sU4Zu

Our thanks to WRI Africa, WRI Brasil, WRI Indonesia, WRI Colombia and WRI Europe for their invaluable contributions to this analysis.

03/31/2026

In Congo Basin forests, a new road can cause big changes. A single narrow path can trigger a cascade of disturbances and quickly make intact forests more vulnerable to agricultural expansion, mining, logging, poaching and other threats.

But tracking these roads is difficult. Many are unpaved, temporary and quickly reclaimed by the forest, becoming nearly invisible in satellite imagery.

🎥 Watch the video to see forest roads in Cameroon become overgrown and hidden from above.

We are excited to help close this gap and introduce a new, high-resolution data set that maps road development in tropical rainforests across six Congo Basin countries, building upon prior research.

Read our blog to learn more: https://bit.ly/4m4tfR5
Explore the data on GFW: https://bit.ly/4s3F1fy

03/09/2026

Over the past 10 years there’s been a slow but stubborn rise in the rate of forest loss, including primary forests, in the Congo Basin.

The spans six countries, which hold some of the largest areas of primary tropical forest in the world: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo.

The DRC alone accounted for roughly 75% of average annual primary forest loss in the Congo Basin, followed by Cameroon. That partly reflects the amount of forest area in both countries, but it also underscores how critical it is to address forest loss in this region.

More on what’s driving in the DRC and Cameroon

In English ➡️ https://bit.ly/47jgs6P
In French ➡️ https://bit.ly/4rRNkMt

03/05/2026

The Congo Basin plays a critical role in the global carbon cycle. As the largest remaining net carbon sink in the tropics, the removed an annual average of 160 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) from the atmosphere over the past decade. That's equivalent to more than Nigeria’s fossil fuel emissions.

Yet there’s been a slow but stubborn rise in the rate of across the Congo Basin's primary forests.

Over the last five years, the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( ) ranked among the top three tropical countries for forest loss globally, and among the top 10. Both countries have the largest areas of primary forest in the region, and this persistent trend underscores the need for stronger policy action and targeted interventions.

Together with the team at WRI Africa, we dive deep into data from University of Maryland's GLAD Lab to share why forest loss in the Congo Basin requires immediate action.

Read our latest analysis to understand where loss is happening and the different drivers of loss, well as recommendations that could turn the tide.

In English ➡️ https://bit.ly/47jgs6P
In French ➡️ https://bit.ly/4rRNkMt

02/16/2026

"Environmental governance in conflict zones is often treated as impossible, something to address only after peace arrives. Our experience suggests the opposite: Forest monitoring during political crisis is both feasible and essential."

Myanmar's 2021 military coup triggered years of devastating violence and displacement and made patrolling contested forest territory very dangerous.

In a new guest blog, former GFW recipient Forest Trends shares how remote sensing tools supported safer forest monitoring in Myanmar after the coup. Working with Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG) Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC), they trained 15 NUG MONREC forest officers to use GFW tools to detect deforestation alerts and conduct ground-truthing when conditions allowed.

Read the full story and their broader lessons about monitoring in conflict zones 📖 https://bit.ly/3ZBuCMw

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