Satellite-Based Forest Clearing Detection in the Brazilian Amazon:

The advent of near-real-time forest monitoring can dramatically strengthen efforts by governments, businesses, and communities to conserve and sustainably manage the world’s forests. This issue brief introduces a system called FORest Monitoring for Action (FORMA), which provides near-realtime information on new forest clearing in the humid tropical forests of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. To assess FORMA’s performance, we compare its spatial and temporal accuracy against PRODES (Projeto de Monitoramento do Desmatamento na Amazônia Legal por Satélite) and DETER (Sistema de Detecção do Desmatamento em Tempo Real na Amazônia), two well-established systems that monitor forest clearing in the Brazilian Amazon. ISSUe BRIef