Thanks to satellites, we can monitor our forests better than ever before. So why is global deforestation still increasing?

Could technology — and in particular, satellite technology — be the key to better understanding the deforestation problem, and creating effective mechanisms to address it?

A new wave of start-ups seems to think so.

“The base information layer of the changing Earth was a missing factor for having actionable insights on global change,” says Tara O’Shea, manager of the forest and land use programs at Planet, a private Earth-imaging company based in San Francisco. “This is what our technology is changing…. For the first time you can see every forest in the whole world every day, and at a resolution where you can distinguish individual trees.”

The growing number of satellites circling our planet are allowing us to understand forests — and the forces threatening them — better than ever before. But it might not matter. All the information in the world will not make a difference if countries and companies don’t put it to good use.

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