Satellite Alerts Have Helped Reduce Deforestation

It took only two years for key African nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo to reduce deforestation by an impressive 18% using a forest satellite monitoring service to maintain inhabitable ecosystems for humans and animals alike and cut down carbon emissions.

Designed by the Global Land Analysis and Discovery system, Global Forest Watch offers alerts to its users which inform them about regions that need to be reforested, or that require ecological preservation and protection.

The most effective way to reduce carbon emissions, and saving between $149 and $696 million, is to reduce deforestation, hence the protocols put in place to ensure a more sustainable model to harvest lumber.

“Now that we know subscribers of alerts can have an effect on deforestation, there are potential ways in which our work can improve the training they receive and support their efforts,” says Fanny Moffette, a Ph.D. researcher at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose work laid the ground for Global Forest Watch, the forest satellite monitoring service that helps concerned nations about maintaining their forests.