Biodiversity & land analytics · World Resources Institute
Global Forest Watch
Free satellite-based platform from WRI tracking forest change, tree cover loss and deforestation alerts worldwide.
Global Forest Watch is a free online platform run by the World Resources Institute that turns satellite imagery into forest-monitoring data: annual tree cover loss and gain back to 2000, near-real-time GLAD and RADD deforestation alerts updated every few days at roughly 10-30m resolution, and fire alerts refreshed multiple times daily. Users can view interactive maps, draw custom areas of interest, subscribe to email or API alerts for a region, and download the underlying datasets. It is built on partnerships with the University of Maryland, NASA, Google and other data providers rather than running its own satellites. GFW is used by governments, NGOs, journalists, commodity buyers and researchers to monitor deforestation, supply-chain risk and land-use change without needing to process satellite imagery themselves.
At a glance
| Vendor | World Resources Institute |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free |
| Free tier | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud |
| Open source | No |
| Best for | NGOs, governments, journalists and companies monitoring deforestation and land-use change without their own remote-sensing team. |
Pricing
Free to use; funded by WRI and philanthropic/government donors, not by subscriptions.
Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site.
Features
- Annual tree cover loss/gain since 2000
- Near-real-time GLAD and RADD deforestation alerts
- Daily fire alerts
- Custom area-of-interest subscriptions
- Free public API
- Downloadable geospatial datasets
- Supply-chain deforestation risk tools
Integrations
Profile last reviewed September 21, 2026