Human activities are transforming natural landscapes across the planet at an accelerating rate, contributing to climate change, biodiversity loss and growing pressure on the land that sustains us. Addressing these challenges requires reliable, accessible and timely information on how land is used and how it changes over time in order to strengthen decision-making, accelerate action and guide solutions that benefit people, nature and the climate.

At Land & Carbon Lab, this is what we are working on — harnessing the latest AI technology and satellite information to create data that provides unprecedented transparency about the world’s land and nature-based carbon. Through our team of leading scientists, technologists and engagement experts, we produce open, peer-reviewed data that reveals how landscapes are shifting and what drives those changes, supported by advanced modeling and machine learning. With this, governments, businesses, researchers, civil society, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities can make informed decisions, shape policies and take action to improve land management, guide restoration and safeguard ecosystems. Our research expands monitoring beyond forests to include grasslands, wetlands, croplands and urban areas — ecosystems that are critical for biodiversity, food security and climate stability, but often overlooked.

Our research has already revolutionized how land and ecosystem change can be measured and understood. Now we are entering the next frontier in monitoring with Global Nature Watch, a groundbreaking AI-powered system designed to make this science faster and more accessible to everyone working to monitor, protect and restore nature.

About Global Nature Watch 

Global Nature Watch is an experimental, open, AI-powered system that combines peer-reviewed research from Land & Carbon Lab and Global Forest Watch in a simple, chat-style interface.  

Users can ask questions in plain language and receive responses backed by data from Land & Carbon Lab and Global Forest Watch, supported by maps, statistics and context. Integrating near-real-time and annual satellite data, it reveals change across ecosystems, from forests to grasslands, croplands and other landscapes. 

As the platform continues to improve, it aims to make monitoring more comprehensive, faster and easier, helping people protect and restore ecosystems, support livelihoods and address climate challenges.

Explore Global Nature Watch here.

Global Nature Watch graphic.

 

Land & Carbon Lab is convened by WRI and the Bezos Earth Fund and powered by a global research network — more than 200 scientists across 20 leading institutions. Together, we produce peer-reviewed, open-source data that provides unprecedented transparency into the world’s land and nature-based carbon. View our partners.