Tesso Nilo is purple. More than half of this 167,000 hectare forest in Riau province, Sumatra, has a reddish hue on the digital map. Purple denotes forest loss. Blue indicates forest gain. The satellite-aided image delivered in near-real time comes courtesy of the Global Forest Watch (GFW) website of the Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI), which was launched on Feb. 20. This free service, accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, is a groundbreaking tool to track deforestation and forest degradation worldwide. Armed with this information, authorities can act quickly. Read More
