Google releases a map that puts forests into six types

Google DeepMind and Google Research released ForTy 2020. It is a global map that puts each 10 by 10 meter patch of land into six forest and land use types. Two partner groups helped. The map is a baseline for the EU deforestation rules. Those rules tell that coffee, cocoa and palm oil must not come from land that was forest in 2020 and was then changed to farms.

How it works

ForTy uses definitions of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The partners are the World Resources Institute and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. The six types are:

• primary forest
• forest that came back by itself
• planted forest
• plantation forest
• tree crops and agroforestry
• other land

The proof

The source gives no test results. The map of last year only divided natural forest from other trees. ForTy adds the type of forest and a first time series for 2017 to 2025.

What is not known

The source does not give test results for each type. It does not tell how the map was made.

Insight: The group that makes the baseline

The EU rules do not let coffee, cocoa, palm oil or wood come from land that was forest in 2020 and was then changed. The same Google group made the natural forest map of last year and this map. This reads as a move to make their maps the baseline, and the one who makes it sets the test for each buyer. A buyer can be examined against it.