This research paper by the Thünen Institute looks at how reliable today’s global forest maps are for tracking deforestation under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The regulation requires that products like cocoa, coffee, soy, palm oil, rubber, timber, and beef must not come from land that was deforested after the end of 2020 – so companies need trustworthy data to prove where forests still exist and where they’ve been cleared.
The authors reviewed 21 widely used global forest and tree-cover datasets and compared how well they support this task. They assessed each one’s strengths, weaknesses, and trade-offs, looking at things like how up-to-date the maps are, how detailed they are, how they define a “forest,” and how accurate they appear to be.
The research helps companies and policymakers choose the most suitable forest data for deforestation monitoring. At the same time, it highlights an important message: global forest maps are valuable tools, but they still have limitations and should be used carefully when making compliance decisions.
