Which of the world’s forests are natural, and which have been planted by humans? It seems like a simple question, but researchers have been struggling to answer it for years. Satellites can’t easily distinguish between primary and secondary forests, which occur naturally, and planted forests, which are created and managed by people to supply timber, […]
The world’s tropical forests are in trouble, confirm new satellite-based data from the University of Maryland and Google, and released today on Global Forest Watch. The world lost more than 18 million hectares (45 million acres) of tree cover—an area twice the size of Portugal—in 2014. Tropical countries lost 9.9 million hectares (24.5 million acres) […]
