As announced in September, GFOI leading partner the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) is now providing free access to high-resolution satellite imagery to support efforts to stop deforestation and save the world’s tropical forests.

Through this new partnership with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), Planet Labs and Airbus that has become operational today, anyone can now access high-resolution (sub-5m per pixel) analysis-ready mosaics through Planet Basemaps of the full tropical land mass:

- Bi-Annual archive (December 2015- August 2020), and

- Monthly monitoring (September 2020 onwards).

 Get started today! Sign up and gain access here.

Users can view and download this data to support efforts to reduce and reverse the loss of tropical forests, combat climate change, conserve biodiversity and facilitate the sustainable development of forest communities.

The products can be used to:

- complement and improve monitoring and measurement of tropical forest changes;

- implement and improve policies for sustainable forest management and land use in developing tropical forest countries and jurisdictions;

- increase transparency and accountability in the tropics;

- protect and improve the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in tropical forest countries;

- innovate solutions towards reducing pressure on forests from global commodities and financial markets;

- advance scientific research about the world’s tropical forests and the critical services they provide.

Learn more about how to use the data with Planet’s Frequently Asked Questions and User Guides.

A quiet and yet powerful revolution has started today, where anyone can access free satellite observations and data to enhance efforts to protect tropical forests. GFOI has been advocating for open and cost-effective satellite data to complement ground-based observations for many years. This new service is particularly timely, as it comes when we reshape the ways we work during and in the aftermath of the current pandemic.

While the world’s forest area continues to decrease, the news of universal access to tropical satellite monitoring products is a shining light through the clouds. We look forward to the GFOI community of forest monitoring practitioners making full use of this vital asset to transform the data into actionable information so that anyone and especially decision makers can take the most out of the new resources.