Global Observations of Forest Cover: Monitoring the World's Forests and other Land Cover Types

Global Observations of Forest Cover was originally set up as a pilot project of the Integrated Global Observation Strategy and has subsequently become a Panel of the Global Terrestrial Observation System. GOFC's overall objective is to improve the quality and availability of observations of forests at regional and global scales and to produce useful, timely and validated information products from these data for a wide variety of users. GOFC is a coordinated international effort working to provide ongoing space-based and in-situ observations of forests and other vegetation cover, for the sustainable management of terrestrial resources and to obtain an accurate, reliable, quantitative understanding of the terrestrial carbon budget. GOFC is working to accomplish its objectives by: providing a forum for users of satellite data to discuss their needs and for producers to respond through improvements to their programs; providing regional and global data sets containing information on: location of different forest types and major changes in forest cover; the distribution and dynamics of fires; biological functioning of forests. Its work includes promoting globally consistent data processing and interpretation methods; promoting international networks for data access, data sharing, and international collaboration and stimulating the production of improved products. Recently it has been decided to extend its scope to include all terrestrial land cover.