Chapter 09 · Sustainability & AISustainability & AI
AI deforestation monitoring
Definition
Detecting forest loss and degradation from satellite imagery with machine learning, producing alerts and maps that support enforcement and zero-deforestation commitments.
References
This source provides part of the technical or institutional basis for the definition.
This source supports the explanation of how the term is applied, measured or governed in practice.
Overview
What it means
The field's reference dataset is Hansen et al.' s global forest-cover change analysis (Science 2013), which showed cloud computing could classify Landsat archives at planetary scale. Services such as Global Forest Watch now deliver near-real-time alerts; radar satellites extend detection through cloud cover.
How it is used
Companies use alerts to verify deforestation-free supply chains; regulators use them for enforcement and for due-diligence regimes requiring geolocation evidence; NGOs use them for accountability. Alerts still require ground or high-resolution confirmation before action.
Why it matters
Deforestation monitoring is the proof case for AI plus Earth observation at policy scale: a global, open, continuously updated evidence base. Its limits — resolution, confirmation lag, degradation versus clear-felling — define where verification still needs humans.