WorldForest is a three-year initiative funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 2025 to enhance how
satellite Earth Observation (EO) supports sustainable forest management worldwide. The project goes beyond traditional EO
product development by combining cutting-edge technical innovation with deep policy alignment and user co-design. Its
mission is to create pre-operational tools and methods that can be used on existing cloud platforms, in direct support of
climate, biodiversity, and forest policy goals.
Forests are central to achieving global climate and biodiversity targets: from the Paris Agreement and REDD+ to the EU
Forest Strategy and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Yet many organisations still lack timely, high-
quality data to inform policy and management decisions. WorldForest responds to this need by identifying gaps in existing
EO capabilities and developing new tools to fill them, with strong involvement from early adopter organisations across
sectors and regions.
WorldForest focuses on creating a suite of EO-based tools that address critical forest monitoring needs. These tools will
cover areas such as:
These products will be developed in close collaboration with early adopters and tested in six pilot locations across Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
By 2027, WorldForest will have produced not only new tools and data, but a tested, scalable approach to co-developing EO
solutions with users. The project will contribute directly to ESA’s global forest monitoring strategy and help define the next
generation of EO services for policy, planning, and sustainable development.
