Illegal logging is an environmental and economic loss for tropical regions like the Amazon. Illegal logging is associated with billions of dollars of lost revenue each year in addition to depressed timber prices, yet effective strategies to curb illegal deforestation are hard to find. Harnessing AI serves as a promising innovation for enhancing the accuracy of forest monitoring, with the potential to be adapted to the Amazon basin and other tropical regions.

In recent years, we’ve witnessed the shocking imagery of Australia, the western United States, Europe, and the Amazon rainforest engulfed in flames, the unprecedented intensity, duration, and extent of the fires inflicting irreversible damage on countries, economies, ecosystems, and the atmosphere. Managing and conserving forest resources remains a top priority, but mapping and monitoring global forests are crucial to understanding how to properly manage and protect them, especially in monitoring wildfires and illegal deforestation, as well as knowing which forests to prioritize preserving. Identifying and monitoring forests with strong conservation value and high carbon stock is also a huge leverage point for targeted intervention of Artificial Intelligence.