GLAD Deforestation Alerts — Satellite Monitoring Cuts Central African Forest Loss by 18%

Global Forest Watch's GLAD alert system, developed by the University of Maryland and hosted by the World Resources Institute, publishes free satellite-derived tree-cover-loss alerts roughly every eight days across the tropics. In Cameroon, government forestry officials use the alerts to flag unauthorised logging inside forest titles and concessions, while civil-society monitors independently report suspected illegal clearing.

A peer-reviewed econometric evaluation found deforestation fell by roughly 18% relative to the 2011-2016 baseline in areas where the effect was statistically significant -- Central Africa, including Cameroon -- equivalent to an estimated 50,000 hectares of avoided deforestation per year across the monitored regions. The authors note their design was built to find the minimum plausible effect, so the true impact may be larger; effectiveness was strongest inside protected areas and logging concessions with existing enforcement follow-up capacity.

The practice is a governance and enforcement tool rather than a direct restoration or payment scheme: it strengthens the enforcement backbone that PES and REDD+ programmes elsewhere depend on. Results in South America and Asia were not statistically significant, likely reflecting competing monitoring tools or lower uptake.