Three Ways that a New Land Monitoring System is Transforming How We Manage Forests

NASA • May 26, 2026

The world has lost over 2,000,000 square miles of tree cover since 2000—equivalent to the total land area of India and Mexico combined.  Of that total, around 36% is estimated to be permanent deforestation. Much of this forest loss is driven by agriculture, wildfires, and logging. For those in charge of managing our planet’s vast forests, tracking each tree felled is a nearly impossible task. But not catching new logging operations, illegal deforestation, or the onset of forest fires can lead to polluted waters, habitat degradation, and out-of-control blazes. That’s where the global land change monitoring system DIST-ALERT comes in. It provides rapid alerts each time vegetation is disturbed.