Google has released a map of the world's forests: Global Forest Watch

If in the nearby forest cut down trees, soon you can learn about it in near real time, thanks to a new project Global Forest Watch , developed by Google in collaboration with the World Resources Institute and another 40 organizations.

The site published photos from NASA for the last 13 years. Moreover, the image processing algorithms allow to calculate the volume of the lost detail and forests grown in each territory and in each country over the years. For example, here statistics on Russia for 2000-2013 : loss of 36, 5 million hectares grown only 16, 2 million hectares (1st place in the world for the loss of forests); Ukraine: -565 thousand hectares. 353 ha. Belarus: -416 thousand hectares. 375 thousand. Ha.

Deforestation goes almost all over the world. Summary all countries shows only a few states where the green cover has increased over the past 13 years. For example, Lesotho and Egypt.

"By the time we learn about deforestation, usually too late to do anything - says Google in a press release. - Scientists studying the forest for centuries, pointing to the vital importance of these ecosystems for human society. But most of us still do not have timely and reliable information about where, when and why forests are disappearing. That should change with the launch of Global Forest Watch ».

The project cost $ 25 million to provide timely information to ecologists and activists about what is happening in their country and in surrounding areas. Soon the site will support alerts to be notified about deforestation in a given area.

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/213831/