Forest check: forest in 2020 and loss since

The regulation asks whether products come from land that has not been deforested after 31 December 2020 (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 2(13)). Deforestation there means forest turned into farmland (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 2(3)). So there are two questions about any plot: was it forest at the end of 2020, and have the trees gone since?

This check answers both, with two maps, and combines them. It is in every plan, the free checker included.

Two maps, each for one question

Was it forest in 2020? The European Commission's own map, the Joint Research Centre's Global Forest Cover 2020, version 4 (JRC Global Forest Cover 2020). It follows the regulation's definition of forest, which leaves out land mainly in agricultural use, plantations included (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 2(4)) (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 2(5)). Its pixels are about 10 metres.

Were trees lost since? Hansen and colleagues' Global Forest Change, version 1.13 (S16), the map most deforestation tools use. It records the year each 30-metre pixel lost its tree cover, up to 2025. It counts every loss of trees: clearing, but also a plantation's harvest, a fire or a storm.

Together. Trees lost in 2021 or later on land the EU's map shows as forest in 2020 is the closest a map comes to deforestation after the cut-off date. Those plots are flagged first. Loss on land that was not forest in 2020, such as a rubber plantation replanted or a cocoa farm renewed, is listed as lower concern. Either map alone would miss one of these or raise false alarms.

What you see

Open a file in the checker and choose Forest next to Problems. For each plot you get:

• the share of it that was forest in 2020, and the hectares;
• the hectares of that 2020 forest lost in 2021 or later, and in which years;
• any other tree cover lost since 2021.

Plots that lost 2020 forest are listed first, then plots with forest on 5 % or more of their area. On the map, Forest 2020 lays the forest under your plots in green, and Loss since 2021 shows the trees lost since in magenta.

A batch check (Starter and above) runs it over every file at once: the table gets forest columns, and the combined report a forest section for each file. The command-line tool runs it with --forest.

When a plot lost 2020 forest, look at it first: compare it with recent imagery on the Satellite map, and ask your supplier what happened there. When forest shows up without loss, check that the land is not farmed now. For wood, forest is expected; the question is whether it was harvested without degrading the forest (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 2(13)).

How it is measured

A plot's forest share is the share of the forest map's pixels (1/12000 of a degree) whose centres fall inside it. The loss map is read at about 19 metres, finer than its own 30, so no loss pixel is dropped; each loss pixel after 2020 is checked against the forest map at its centre. A point is measured as a circle of its declared area, or of 4 hectares when it has none, which is how the Information System treats a point without an area (GeoJSON File Description v1.5, §4).

A plot is flagged when it lost 0.1 hectares or more of its 2020 forest, about one pixel of the loss map, and when it had forest on 5 % or more of its area. Both thresholds are ours, not the regulation's.

Both maps are references, not verdicts. At this resolution they have errors, and both teams publish their accuracy. A plot flagged is a reason to look closer. A plot not flagged is not proof of anything.

What is sent, and to whom

Your file stays on your device. The check asks the JRC's map server and Global Forest Watch's tile server for the maps around your plots, in fixed squares of about 10 km. It does not send plot outlines, coordinates from the file or any names. It runs only when you press the button. The map layers work the same way, for the area on screen.

A report link can include the check. Then our server asks for the same squares around a file you saved.

Overlaps between suppliers (Team)

On Team and above, Overlaps compares every plot in the current version of each of your projects and supplier files. It finds the same land declared twice, often by two suppliers under two names. For each pair it shows how much ground they share.

Sources and licences

Bourgoin, C. et al. (2026): Global map of forest cover 2020 – version 4. European Commission, Joint Research Centre. doi:10.2905/JRC.3KATEH8. © European Union, licensed CC BY 4.0.

Hansen, M. C. et al. (2013): High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change. Science 342: 850–53. doi:10.1126/science.1244693. Data: Global Forest Change 2000–2025 v1.13, University of Maryland, via Global Forest Watch, licensed CC BY 4.0.