World forest gains and losses mapped

A new map of forest changed has been created by the University of Maryland with the help of Google Maps.The map shows forest change from 2000-12. Green areas are forested; red suffered forest loss; blue showed forest gain; pink experienced both loss and gain.

The Earth lost 2.3 million square kilometres of tree cover in that period, due to logging, fire, disease or storms. But the planet also gained 800,000 sq km of new forest, a net loss of 1.5 million sq km in total. Overall the result was a lost of forest six times the size of the UK. The map is produced using 650,000 satellite images and will now be updated annually.

This map would make a really good map description exercise. Pupils could also compare this map to a GDP map to see whether there is a link between economic development and deforestation.