Comparing Global and National Approaches to Estimating Deforestation Rates in REDD+ Countries

The paper evaluates the differences between national deforestation estimates reported by REDD+ countries and the Global Forest Change (GFC) data. It finds that GFC data serve as an unbiased proxy for tropical deforestation and are significantly cheaper to produce than national systems, suggesting that adapting global data for national reporting could improve sustainability and comparability.

• The Global Forest Change (GFC) tree cover loss data from Hansen et al. (2013) provide a transparent, consistent, and reasonably accurate method for monitoring tropical deforestation and act as an unbiased proxy for deforestation across all REDD+ countries, even before adjustments for national forest definitions.
• GFC data are produced at a fraction of the cost compared to the investments made in national forest monitoring systems. Aligning or customizing this global data for national use could reduce costs and enhance the long-term sustainability and comparability of national reporting systems.
• Discrepancies exist between national and global deforestation estimates at the country level for various reasons; however, applying appropriate filtering to match national forest definitions would likely improve the alignment between GFC and national estimates in many instances.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Comparing Global and National Approaches to Estimating Deforestation Rates in REDD+ Countries. https://www.wri.org/research/comparing-global-and-national-approaches-estimating-deforestation-rates-redd-countries

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Comparing Global and National Approaches to Estimating Deforestation Rates in REDD+ Countries. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/comparing-global-and-national-approaches-estimating-deforestation-rates-redd-countries.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Comparing Global and National Approaches to Estimating Deforestation Rates in REDD+ Countries |url=https://www.wri.org/research/comparing-global-and-national-approaches-estimating-deforestation-rates-redd-countries |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendcomparing, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Comparing Global and National Approaches to Estimating Deforestation Rates in REDD+ Countries}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/comparing-global-and-national-approaches-estimating-deforestation-rates-redd-countries}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }