Mapping News

This is the first in a two-part series about advances in mapping technology and how they're being used to keep a closer eye on the world's forests. Read the second…

Researchers map out poorly understood dry tropical forests in Southeast Asia; technique may help protect wildlife living within Trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae dominate the forests of Southeast Asia. These…

Screenshot of the mapping function of the Sustainable Palm Oil Transparency Toolkit, powered by ESRI. Click image to enlarge. A new initiative ranks the world's 25 largest publicly listed palm…

Administrative maps show DRC's Luama Katanga Reserve in the wrong place, letting mining concessions and agriculture threaten the reserve's unique wildlife - including a new plant species. Scientists have discovered…

Carnegie Airborne Observatory map showing carbon in along the main stem of the Amazon in Peru. All images courtesy of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory/Greg Asner Nearly a billion tons of…

New maps allow public exploration of the area Goodall has used for research for nearly fifty years Google Maps is now available for Tanzanian forest paths. Users can walk virtually…

Global distribution of forest cover, circa-1990. Click image to enlarge Researchers have created a global map of the world's forests in the year 1990, enabling accurate comparisons between past and…

Forest map in the Peruvian Amazon developed from the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, an airplane-based platform that uses advanced LiDAR to measure forest carbon values and other properties. Photo courtesy of…

World lost nearly 10 percent of its untouched forests in just over 10 years, according to new analysis Every day, the world loses about 50,000 hectares of forest to agricultural…

Map shows where roads should be built, where they should not, and where human and environmental needs conflict Roads make it possible to bring goods to market, to get to…

Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation: Q&A with Dr. Mark Mulligan Swamp forest in Western Colombia. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Mark Mulligan makes maps for the masses. In his work…

Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation: Q&A with William F. Laurance Logging road in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. In the world of conservation, Dr. William Laurance is a household…

Deforestation mapping goes global with Stanford's free online training platform Efforts to map and analyze deforestation and forest degradation got a boost today when Stanford University announced a new online…

Also see our Top 10 HAPPY environmental stories of 2013. Elephant in South Africa. The poaching crisis in Africa is number six on our annual top ten list. Photo by:…

Forest loss in Indonesia has sharply risen over the past 12 years, reports a new study published in the journal Science. The study, led by Matt Hansen of University of…

Researchers today released a long-awaited tool that reveals the extent of forest cover loss and gain on a global scale. Powered by Google's massive computing cloud, the interactive forest map…

An indigenous peoples’ rights group has vowed to map millions of hectares of customary land in Indonesia, an ambitious target it hopes will help protect indigenous forests from encroachment by…

Polka-dotted and striped. Massive but docile. That’s the whale shark for you - the largest fish and shark in the world. But despite being major tourist attractions, the lives of…

What region of the world has the most imperiled mammals? Where are the most bird species found? And where are new amphibians being discovered? Indonesia and Malaysia is the answer…

Drones have been getting a bad rap lately and for good reason. However in the state of Assam, these commonly used weapons of warfare are being used to monitor the…

Female lion with wildebeest kill in Tanzania. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. For a long time male lions were derided as the lazy ones in the pride, depending on females…

In a new video ethnobotanist, Mark Plotkin, talks about recent—and historical—efforts to preserve the Amazon rainforest through map-making and technology. Today scientists like Plotkin are teaching indigenous people how to…

RAISG's map of the Amazon. An update to one of the most comprehensive maps of the Amazon basin shows that forest cover across the world's largest rainforest declined by about…

Herd of elephants crossing a river in Kenya. Photo by: Rob Roy. Scientists have long known that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are talented tree-topplers, able to take down even large…

Map of extent of global wetlands. Courtesy of Prigent et al 2012. Click image to enlarge. Global wetlands declined by six percent between 1993 and 2007 due to conversion for…

The Google Street View team in the Brazilian Amazon. Courtesy of Google. Google has posted images of a stretch of rainforest and communities along the Amazon river on its Street…

Overlooking rainforest in Guyana. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. In a bid to gain legal recognition of their land, the indigenous Wapichan people have digitally mapped their customary rainforest land in…

Biomass map. Courtesy of WHRC. Click here for a zoom-able version. Tropical rainforests store some 229 billion tons of carbon in their vegetation — about 20 percent more than previously…

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) on Saturday released a comprehensive map of the world's REDD+ programs. The map includes 340 REDD+ projects, programs, and policies in 52 countries.…

Screenshot of new website of community mapping in central Africa's forests. A new initiative to place community mapping of central African rainforests online could prove key to local rights in…