Google DeepMind maps the world's forest types at 10 m, correct 90% of the time

What the researchers released

Google DeepMind and Google Research, working with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), released Forest Typology 2020, or ForTy, on 22 October 2026. The map classifies every 10-by-10-metre patch of land worldwide into six types based on UN Food and Agriculture Organization definitions: primary forest, naturally regenerating forest, planted forest, plantation forest, tree crops and agroforestry, and other land. The work, by Maxim Neumann and Charlotte Stanton and colleagues, is published in Scientific Data.

An early-release time series covers each year from 2017 to 2025 and shows what replaced lost forest, such as a timber plantation or a tree-crop farm. For each pixel the map gives a probability for every class, so users can set their own thresholds.

How it was built and how accurate it is

The model was trained on about 1.7 million labelled locations from expert surveys, national and regional datasets and targeted reviews of difficult areas. Its input is AlphaEarth Foundations embeddings, which summarise years of satellite observations for each 10-metre pixel.

To check accuracy, the team picked more than 9,000 random sites, each reviewed by two trained experts. ForTy named the correct forest type 90% of the time and separated forest from non-forest 95% of the time. The authors say it outperformed other global forest maps. Accuracy figures are reported only for the 2020 map, not for the yearly series.

Why it matters

Tree cover maps show where trees are, but not whether they are old natural forest or a plantation. That distinction is what the EU deforestation regulation needs for products such as coffee, cocoa, palm oil and wood, and the authors describe ForTy as a key baseline for it. Several classes depend on how land is used rather than how it looks, so the model has to infer use from indirect clues. ForTy follows Natural Forests of the World 2020, an earlier 10-metre map that separated natural forest from other tree cover. Google DeepMind's AlphaGenome Atlas followed a similar approach of releasing precomputed predictions as open data.

What to watch next

The authors plan to keep improving the yearly series with partners and users, and accuracy numbers for those years are not yet published. How regulators and companies use ForTy for EU deforestation checks is the practical test. Users can also compare it with national forest inventories, since the map gives class probabilities rather than fixed labels. The full dataset can be downloaded from Figshare as well as used in Earth Engine. More AI for science work is under AI Research.

Questions people ask

What is ForTy?

Forest Typology 2020, a global map released on 22 October 2026 that classifies every 10-by-10-metre land patch into six forest and land-use types.

How accurate is the ForTy forest map?

In checks at more than 9,000 random sites, it named the correct forest type 90% of the time and separated forest from non-forest 95% of the time, the authors report.

Where can I get the ForTy data?

It is free on Google Earth Engine under an open licence, with a Figshare download linked from the blog post.

Sources

1. Beyond tree cover: mapping the world's forest types (Google DeepMind, 22 Oct 2026)
2. ForTy paper in Scientific Data (Scientific Data, 22 Oct 2026)