The Guardian, Oliver Balch: “The world’s first monitoring tool providing ‘near real time’ data on changes in forest cover could change how companies track deforestation in their supply chains. A new global mapping service…launched today, Global Forest Watch is pitched as the world’s first monitoring tool providing ‘near real time’ data on changes in forest cover. The brainchild of the World Resources Institute (WRI), a US-based environment non-profit, the web-based service is free to access, global in scope and simple to use. “What is new here is that we’re taking an enormous amount of complex and very confusing information and making it accessible to everyone, everywhere. You don’t need a PhD in astrophysics to understand Global Forest Watch”, explained Nigel Sizer, director of WRI’s Global Forest Initiative. For data-hungry forest lovers, it’s like all their Christmases at once. With the latest satellite data at the touch of a laptop button, users of Global Forest Watch can home in on any corner of the planet and see exactly when and where deforestation is occurring. The pixel definition is so good for some biomes that individual trees can be identified.”