Planet Introduces the Tropical Forest Observatory: A New Program for Reducing and Reversing Tropical Deforestation

Summary

• Planet is expanding the Tropical Forest Observatory-a program to make PlanetScope imagery available for preventing and reversing deforestation.
• The Tropical Forest Observatory offers monthly PlanetScope mosaics over tropical forest regions with a deep archive enabling you to see changes to tropical forests.
• Low-cost access is available to researchers, nonprofits, and Indigenous organizations and others for non-commercial use cases.

The Vital Role of Tropical Forests

Tropical forests are among the most biodiversity-rich places on the globe. They help regulate water flows and precipitation, sequester and store carbon, cool the areas around them, and offer a bounty of food and fiber. Without tropical forests, many places would be more vulnerable to droughts and floods, face greater food insecurity, and risk losing traditional knowledge and cultural practices tied to these landscapes.

And yet, these magnificent ecosystems are under threat in many countries. According to an analysis by the World Resources Institute, the world lost a record-shattering 6.7 million hectares of tropical forest in 2024, nearly equivalent in size to the country of Panama.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo each experienced their highest respective levels of primary forest loss on record in 2024, and notable increases in deforestation occurred in Amazon basin countries in South America. In that year, glimmers of hope came from Southeast Asia, where Indonesia and Malaysia saw decreases in tropical forest loss.

PlanetScope mosaic from May 2025 of a forested area with human activity along the Ituri River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Seeing Change with PlanetScope Tropical Forest Mosaics

Near-daily global monitoring capabilities from our PlanetScope constellation track deforestation activity in unprecedented detail. Every month, we create mosaics of our tropical forests by combining the best PlanetScope imagery over Earth's landmass between the tropics. These monthly mosaics have provided tens of thousands of users with a way to monitor activity across vast and remote regions to raise awareness and accelerate action when needed.

In fact, supporting tropical forest conservation was one of the inspirations for founding Planet over a decade ago. Planet's purpose continues to be accelerating humanity toward a more sustainable, secure, and prosperous world, by illuminating environmental and social change. And through the Tropical Forest Observatory we remain dedicated to this purpose today.

Introducing Tropical Forest Observatory

Planet is proud of our previous work to deliver this type of satellite data through the former NICFI Satellite Data Program. Through that program, sponsored by Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative, monthly PlanetScope mosaics were offered as a digital public good for more than four years - the full tenure of the program, which has since expired.

Planet's commitment to tropical forests and to the organizations that sustain them has not waned. That is why today we are proud to expand access to the Tropical Forest Observatory, which makes PlanetScope mosaics over tropical forests available for non-commercial use. It's now open to all researchers, Indigenous and civil society organizations, nonprofits, research and development uses, and others working to protect tropical forests. The program offers access to this unique dataset for non-commercial and non-governmental applications to reduce and reverse tropical forest loss.

We have significantly reduced the cost to access our data through this program. We are offering monthly and yearly plans with the option to pay for more data as you need it - to ensure you can start small and then scale the impact of your work across large areas. We hope this will democratize access to our dataset for tropical forest monitoring purposes and make it more attainable globally.

How Tropical Forest Observatory Works

The Tropical Forest Observatory program provides access to monthly tropical forest mosaics through Planet Insights Platform. This includes both visual and analytic versions of the mosaics- with the analytic version being optimized specifically for detecting changes in tropical forests. You can also access imagery from Sentinel and Landsat constellations through the same platform to further support your forest monitoring workflows.

Users that purchase access to the Tropical Forest Observatory data receive processing units that can be used to download and stream these datasets. And they can use these datasets through APIs, web applications, or GIS tools like ArcGIS and QGIS.

The more data is used, the more processing units are consumed. And if more units are needed to access more data, they can be purchased as needed.

Get Started Now

At Planet, we believe that you cannot fix what you cannot see - and that high-quality data can help deliver tailored insights that inspire action and better decision-making. With the Tropical Forest Observatory program, we aim to continue to serve and support the global community monitoring tropical forests and advancing crucial conservation and restoration efforts.

Together, we can have a greater impact, bringing together data and insight to reduce and reverse tropical forest loss before it is too late. Getting started with the Tropical Forest Observatory begins with creating a trial account on Planet Insights Platform. Sign up today.

Please note that commercial and governmental use falls outside of the purpose of the Tropical Forest Observatory. If you have a use case that is not in the category of non-commercial and non-governmental use, we continue to offer access to our data through our global sales team. We have seen numerous examples of organizations building applications on top of this data, and governments using it for enforcement. We are happy to support you with these use cases.