---
id: data-sources/global-nature-watch
about:
  depiction: data-sources/global-nature-watch.jpg
  label: Global Nature Watch
  description: >-
    Website from the World Resources Institute, called Global Forest Watch until
    2026, that publishes free global data, maps and alerts on forests and is
    widening to grasslands and farmland.
  tags:
    - forests
    - deforestation
    - tree cover loss
    - alerts
    - satellite
    - land cover
datasource:
  coverage: >-
    global; forests, with grasslands, agricultural land and trees outside
    forests being added
  cadence: annual tree cover loss data; monthly and weekly deforestation alerts
  access: >-
    free online; a myGNW account saves areas of interest; email alert
    subscriptions
  format: >-
    web map and dashboards, email alerts, the Forest Watcher mobile app for
    offline field use
  homepage: 'https://globalnaturewatch.org/'
open:
  source: unknown
  data: open
  api: unknown
  participation: unknown
  note: The pages read call the data open and free but state no licence.
domains:
  - ecology
provenance:
  origin: agent
  sources:
    - title: 'Forest Monitoring, Land Use & Deforestation Trends'
      url: 'https://globalnaturewatch.org/'
    - title: About GNW
      url: 'https://globalnaturewatch.org/about/'
    - title: Global Forest Watch is Now Global Nature Watch
      url: >-
        https://www.globalnaturewatch.org/blog/data-and-tools/gfw-now-global-nature-watch/
  created: '2026-10-19'
  reviewed: '2026-10-19'
  reviewed_by: >-
    Claude, from the sources listed; the home page is mostly a script shell and
    gave little text
  status: draft
---
The World Resources Institute (WRI) is based in Washington, DC.[^2] The renaming from Global Forest Watch was announced on 1 July 2026, and nothing changes for users but the name.[^3] WRI began the programme in 1997 as a network of NGOs reporting on forests in Cameroon, Canada, Gabon and Indonesia.[^2] In 2014 it relaunched as an interactive online map with forest data for the whole world.[^2]

The data published include:

- annual tree cover loss (the tenth yearly release came in 2024)[^2]
- monthly and weekly deforestation alerts, which users can receive by email[^1,2]
- the drivers of tree cover loss[^2]
- maps of forest carbon emissions and removals[^2]
- plantation data for 82 countries[^2]
- pan-tropical primary forest data[^2]

Rainforest Foundation US applied the forest carbon data with Indigenous communities seeking climate finance.[^2] The cocoa trader ECOM used it to reduce deforestation in its supply chain, and FOCEN to track forest pests in Mexico's Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.[^2] WRI cites an evaluation in which areas where Indigenous monitors had satellite data saw 52 percent less deforestation in a year.[^2]

The data and tools are free to use online.[^2,3] A myGNW account keeps saved areas of interest, and alert subscriptions continue under the new name.[^3] Forest Watcher, a mobile app released in 2017, takes the data offline into the field.[^2] GFW Pro, released in 2019 for companies managing deforestation risk, is the first tool to be consolidated as WRI gradually merges its tools.[^2,3] A separate preview site, Global Nature Watch Horizon, holds AI-driven work under development.[^1,3]

WRI reports more than nine million visitors since 2014.[^2] With the new name it is extending coverage beyond forests to grasslands, agricultural land and trees outside forests.[^3]