According to FAO's 2024 Global Forest Resources Assessment, forests absorb about 2.6 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year, offsetting roughly one-third of CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels. The Forest Carbon Monitoring Platform (FCM) project uses Earth Observation data to monitor forest carbon stocks and improve forest management. 

Source : FAO

The Forest Carbon Monitoring Platform (FCM) project aims to prototype a reliable, operational monitoring and accounting system for forest carbon stocks, maximizing the synergistic use of Earth Observation (EO) data and addressing key policy needs, including support for REDD+ and voluntary carbon markets.

During the latest reporting period, the team made notable progress on algorithm development and EO data pre-processing. Deep learning models based on the UNet architecture were successfully trained using datasets from Catalonia and Finland. The Catalonia model will be used to demonstrate temporal transfers, while the Finland model is being transferred geographically to support biomass mapping in Norway.

In Colombia, the project is supporting biomass mapping for a REDD+ area, focusing particularly on a leakage belt. Despite challenging field conditions, 45 reference plots were successfully measured. Analysis of this field data is ongoing and will be complemented by visual interpretation sampling using NICFI Planet data—completing the two-step sampling methodology designed for the Colombian use case.

With technical milestones on track and growing interest from global stakeholders, the Forest Carbon Monitoring Platform is increasingly positioning itself as a key enabler of science-based, EO-powered forest carbon accounting solutions.