Earth Observation for Forests: Open Foris solutions driving real impact for forests and people

Forests, data, and digital innovation took center stage at the Earth Observation for Forests session during the GEO Global Forum 2025 on 6 May. Co-hosted by FAO’s Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms team, alongside partners from the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Chinese Academy of Forestry, and the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI), the session showcased how cutting-edge earth observation and open-source technologies are transforming the way we monitor forests, restore ecosystems, and bring transparency to global supply chains.

The session highlighted 15 years of innovation under the Open Foris initiative and how it has supported countries in building robust and transparent national forest monitoring systems that respond to climate and biodiversity commitments.

“FAO’s Open Foris has been a game-changer for democratizing open-source forest monitoring solutions, with over 250,000 users in 196 countries using the solutions to drive impact for forests and people,” said Julian Fox, Team Leader of Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms at FAO. “91% of forest UNFCCC submissions from 63 countries have used Open Foris solutions.”

Accelerating innovation through open-source solutions

The session featured the latest developments under the Open Foris initiative with presentations on integrated solutions for restoration monitoring and for forest monitoring for transparent commodity supply chains.

The Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring (FERM) was launched as the newest Open Foris integrated solution. FERM supports countries in planning, monitoring, and reporting restoration efforts, including contributions to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework Target 2 and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Yelena Finegold, Forestry Officer at FAO, demonstrated how FERM integrates a range of Open Foris platforms—from satellite data processing in SEPAL (se.plan),  Earth Map, and Collect Earth, to on-the-ground observations using field inventories via Ground. FERM offers a shared registry of restoration initiatives and good practices, a geospatial tool to visualize restoration data, a search engine to access restoration good practices and initiatives. .

Restoration monitoring and reporting through FERM is being piloted in countries such as Brazil, Kenya, Philippines and Peru, and the FERM is currently being used by over 1200 users and 138 countries, and is available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

The session also explored how forest monitoring can enable  sustainable and transparent commodity supply chains:

WHISP, presented by FAO’s Rémi d’Annunzio, is a geospatial compliance platform promoted by FAO’s AIM4Commodities project. It uses convergence of  evidence from multiple layers of satellite data  to support regulatory requirements at the plot level. WHISP is open-source, interoperable, and tailored to national contexts.

Pascal Ripplinger introduced INATrace, developed by GIZ with the participation of women-led cooperatives. It is a blockchain-based traceability platform that maps every step of a supply chain to ensure transparency and fairness. INATrace offers customizable and inclusive features to help producers meet emerging international deforestation regulations.

These solutions are part of a broader push toward digital public infrastructure for agriculture and forests, aligning local innovation with global compliance needs.

The System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing and Analysis for Land Monitoring (SEPAL) was presented by Erik Lindquist, Forestry Officer at FAO. In a world rich in petabytes of freely available data, SEPAL enables users to process and analyze satellite data using cloud-based infrastructure, offering solutions for forest change detection and emissions reporting.

SEPAL now supports over 20,000 registered users across 186 countries and more than 300 organizations and continues to be a cornerstone of FAO’s open-source solutions. Last year, Open Foris and SEPAL were recognized with the Google Geo for Good Impact Award for providing satellite data access and processing capabilities to users around the world—from Indigenous Peoples in Nicaragua to national institutions in Uganda, Indonesia, and Peru—leveraging Google Earth Engine technology within a wider framework of collaboration between FAO and Google.

A live demonstration of SEPAL by Geospatial Specialist Pooja Pandey showed how users can generate maps and insights in just a few minutes and a few clicks—from time-series vegetation trends to customized land cover classifications.

Yong Pang, Professor of Forest Remote Sensing from the Chinese Academy of Forestry closed the session exploring multi-scale Earth Observation, integrating TECIS mission data with LiDAR, drones, AI, and multi-angle satellite sensors to improve data collection and monitoring. Professor Pang emphasized the importance of long-term earth observation data in strengthening ecosystem resilience—particularly in post-disaster assessments, forest inventories, and biodiversity monitoring.

As countries scale up their efforts to meet climate and biodiversity targets, the use of earth observation and open digital solutions will continue to play a critical role in forestry. FAO and its partners remain committed to strengthening national capacities, fostering innovation through open data and collaboration, and supporting transparent, inclusive, and robust forest monitoring systems.

Julian Fox concluded the session by highlighting key elements that ran through all presentations:

• The importance of working in open-source environments, for transparency and collaboration, and for future-proofing investments in digital solutions, which can evolve and expand across projects and programmes – such as the evolution of the Open Foris initiative over 15 years
• The power of interoperability in removing duplication of effort and enabling collaboration and data exchange across platforms
• The importance of national capacity, and national data ownership, which builds sustainability and trust for national authorities, and enables actions by those who have mandates within governments

The innovative solutions and partnerships shown during the GEO session demonstrate that when data is accessible and technology is inclusive, progress for forests and people everywhere becomes possible.