Beyond tree cover: mapping the world's forest types
Google DeepMind, Google Research, the World Resources Institute and IIASA release Forest Typology (ForTy) 2020, a 10-meter global map sorting land into six categories such as primary forest, plantations and tree-crop farms. An early annual series from 2017 to 2025 shows how forests changed; the data is free on Google Earth Engine.
What the article says
On 22 October 2026, Google DeepMind and Google Research published the ForTy 2020 map with WRI and IIASA, going beyond simple tree cover. The aim is to tell a primary forest from a plantation harvested every 10 to 20 years, since the EU deforestation regulation requires knowing whether land was forest in 2020. The map builds on Natural Forests of the World 2020.
ForTy classifies each 10 x 10 m parcel into six categories (primary forest, naturally regenerating forest, planted forest, forest plantation, tree crops and agroforestry, other land), using AlphaEarth Foundations embeddings. An annual time series from 2017 to 2025 is offered in early access. According to the page, the right forest type is found in 90% of cases and forest versus non-forest in 95%, based on more than 9,000 validation sites. The data is free on Google Earth Engine, with a dedicated app and a Figshare download.
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