In a study by a research group that includes our Department Head Jennifer Alix-Garcia in the journal Nature Climate Change, forest loss was shown to have declined 18% in African nations where land managers and policymakers subscribe to a new satellite-based program that provides free alerts when it detects deforestation activities.
The study found that the Global Land Analysis and Discovery System, known as GLAD, resulted in carbon sequestration benefits worth hundreds of millions of dollars in GLAD’s first two years. GLAD, launched in 2016, is a financially efficient tactic for making a dent in deforestation. It delivers alerts created by the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery lab based on high-resolution satellite imaging from NASA’s Landsat Science program. The information is made available to subscribers via a free, interactive web application, Global Forest Watch.
The premise is simple: Subscribe to GLAD, launch Global Forest Watch, receive email alerts when the GLAD algorithm detects deforestation going on and then take action to save forests.