We are incredibly proud to announce our new product, FORESTER. We at Space4Good have launched FORESTER as an innovative solution that will revolutionise how ground teams monitor and predict deforestation. By standardising our remote-sending, data-driven approach into a product, FORESTER enhances local action with powerful insights and scalable capabilities. It’s a lean, efficient tool that helps forest managers prevent deforestation with greater precision and impact.
FORESTER’s journey began four years ago with a simple yet ambitious idea: to create a tool that would truly empower forest managers worldwide. As we worked closely with ground teams in tropical regions, we noticed a recurring theme—forest managers were grappling with similar challenges, often overwhelmed by fragmented data or maps that lacked actionable insights. Ground teams were unable to pinpoint where deforestation events were occurring, and the tools they used lacked the accuracy to confirm whether the deforestation was relevant or illegal, ultimately discouraging them from investigating altogether. We realized they didn’t need just another map; they needed a practical, adaptable solution to help them monitor and predict deforestation with precision.
What started with the development of our first algorithms grew into a functional prototype on a platform we called ReForestER. Over time, and with the support of the ESA BASS program and collaboration with ILDAP, we refined and expanded this prototype into what is now FORESTER—a streamlined, scalable product tailored to the real needs of forest managers. Along the way, we faced the inevitable twists and turns and constantly iterated to ensure FORESTER was as impactful as it could be. FORESTER isn’t just another map—it’s a tool designed to empower forest teams to act confidently and effectively.
Protect What Stands
At its core, Space4Good’s FORESTER is about empowering those on the frontlines of forest conservation. Designed as both a detection and prediction tool, it equips ground teams with the ability to monitor deforestation in near real-time and anticipate potential threats. This proactive approach ensures that forest guardians can act swiftly and decisively against illegal logging and other dangers.
Figure 1. Tropical forest in Indonesia affected by deforestation area
So FORESTER is about more than just reacting to threats—it’s about safeguarding the forests that remain. These standing forests are invaluable, not only for the biodiversity they harbor but also for their critical role in stabilizing our climate and supporting local livelihoods. Protecting what stands isn’t just an urgent need—it’s the foundation of a sustainable future. FORESTER helps make this possible, enabling those on the ground to protect what matters most.
Who we support
FORESTER is specifically designed for organizations with forest ground teams, including forest office managers, NGOs, (agro)forestry companies, forest-based project developers, and NGOs supporting local communities living sustainably within forests. These groups, often operating in the carbon or supply chain markets, face significant challenges: monitoring vast forest areas in real-time with limited resources, promptly detecting illegal logging activities, and addressing persistent data gaps. Additionally, they must comply with stringent environmental regulations and provide detailed reports to stakeholders, authorities, auditors, and certifiers.
FORESTER addresses these challenges by providing a platform that empowers ground teams and office managers to:
Act swiftly and strategically with real-time insights.
Optimize resources and enhance operational efficiency.
Streamline compliance and reporting processes for authorities, auditors, and management.
Below, we outline the key benefits FORESTER delivers to these critical stakeholders:
Preserving land and forests: Reduction of land theft, increase of Forest cover, and reduction of illegal deforestation events.
Cost and resource efficiency: Reduction of patrolling cost by directing action on real deforestation events and easier coordination by getting directly actionable information on patrol WhatsApp in whichever local language the team requires
Streamlined and compliant reporting: An easy tool to valorise the sustainable practice by independent, transparent, science-based reporting.
How FORESTER works in practice
Figure 2. The FORESTER experience
Get Alerted: Receive precise, near-real-time deforestation and fire alerts directly to your mobile device after each satellite overpass.
Investigate: Engage forest guardians using participatory tools to optimize your local model, reduce costs, and enhance coordination.
Predict: Visualize monthly predictions of future deforestation events to take proactive measures and protect forests more effectively.
Report and Exchange: Automate reporting to partners and authorities, customize with bespoke layers, and seamlessly integrate with other systems via APIs.
Monitor: Track and document progress toward impact goals, including land use changes, forest and biomass gains or losses, drought conditions, and more.
FORESTER Technology
Global satellite data is at the base of our automated detection and predictive monitoring. FORESTER utilizes Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2 data for dealing with tropical contexts and couples this with locally accurate algorithms.
The launch of Sentinel-1C on December 5th 2024, has further empowered FORESTER. Upon release of new satellite data -now every 7 days - the algorithm is run thereby identifying illegal deforestation within a 2-week timeframe.
Global satellite data is contextualized through collaboration with our ground teams. A continuous validation feedback loop ensures that local forest teams verify alerts by either visiting the site directly or deploying drone flights when environmental conditions make access challenging. Using key data from FORESTER, this process enhances accuracy, delivers more reliable insights, improves classification, and minimizes false alarms.
We are now the only company predicting illegal logging at 20 m resolution. Our models are based on an array of different datasets, such as region, land cover, elevation and slope, combined with fast-updated prediction factors, such as previous events and weather patterns. These are combined in a machine learning algorithm, which delivers results visualised through risk maps, clearly showing users areas of concern.
In order to provide high-quality outputs, we train our algorithms in the local context. This means better support for investigation and better reporting. This way, we play our part in supporting our customers to secure their forest assets, reduce operational costs and create trust and transparency with public authorities, local stakeholders and nature conservation finance.
Use Case-ARSARI Group
Arsari Group and Masarang were facing theft of land and resources via illegal logging, endangering their conservation/production area in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Local rangers were trying to protect almost 200,000 hectares of natural land ranging from open landscapes to dense rainforest, with poor road conditions, and were unable to effectively stop illegal deforestation.
Rather than randomly searching through areas of thick rainforest, ground teams needed to know where and when a threat was likely to emerge, so they could swiftly mobilise.
Arsari and Masarang became the first FORESTER users and have since delivered:
+115% in forest cover increase since 2014
90% accuracy in identifying 209 illegal deforestation events
80% cost savings via predictive mapping and remote sensing
Their success has grabbed national attention. In November 2024, the Minister of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia awarded the ITCIKU concession for its exceptional achievement in contributing to Indonesia's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). Based on KLHK data, natural forest cover in the ITCIKU concession in the last decade has increased by more than 115 per cent. ARSARI Group CEO Hashim S Djojohadikusumo welcomed the award.
Figure 3. ITCIKU Concession receives an award for climate action from the Indonesia Minister of Environment and Forestry. Source.
What’s next?
Building on our product launch, we are working towards the following next steps:
Expand our predictive capabilities with the integration of Sentinel-1C data for faster refresh rates.
Partner with more organizations to refine localized algorithms for diverse forest ecosystems.
Launch new use cases, like the ongoing collaboration with Maquicupuna in Ecuador, to demonstrate the adaptability of FORESTER in various contexts.
Continue to enhance our reporting tools to better support compliance with international regulations such as EUDR.
To share more about our real-world applications, we invite you to join us for an exclusive webinar. Dive deeper into the possibilities of FORESTER, explore its impact on forest conservation, and learn how your organization can benefit from our deforestation detection and prediction.
Date: 22 January
Time: 10AM CET time
Location: Online
Reserve your spot today! Webinar registration form
Let’s protect what stands and empower those on the frontlines of conservation!
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Would you like more information or are you interested in collaborating with Space4Good? Visit our website or contact us via hello@space4good.com.
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