Using Earth Observation Data to Monitor Deforestation and Forest Degradation to Ensure Compliance with Regulatory Frameworks

Dear Colleagues,

Deforestation and forest degradation are major environmental challenges with profound implications for biodiversity, climate change, and ecosystem services. In response, governments, industries, and international organizations have established regulatory frameworks and zero-deforestation initiatives to ensure sustainable land-use practices. For example, the new EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) aims to curb deforestation by requiring due diligence for seven major agricultural and forestry commodities, namely beef, cacao, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soy, and timber. Verifying compliance with such commitments and regulatory frameworks remains a complex task, requiring accurate, scalable, and cost-effective monitoring systems. Earth observation (EO) technologies, including satellite imagery, remote sensing, and geospatial analytics, offer transformative solutions for tracking deforestation and forest degradation in near real-time and at large spatial scales.

This Special Issue explores the role of EO in supporting compliance with regulatory frameworks such as the EUDR and voluntary zero-deforestation commitments. Contributions will examine innovative EO methodologies, such as GeoAI, machine learning-based land-cover classification, land-use and commodity mapping, radar and optical data fusion, automated deforestation, and forest degradation alerts. Additionally, case studies may highlight applications in supply chain traceability, law enforcement, and for sustainability reporting. This Special Issue will also address the challenges of EO-based compliance monitoring, including data availability, accuracy, and integration with ground-based verification.

This Special Issue aims to advance the scientific understanding and practical implementation of EO for deforestation-free supply chains and regulatory enforcement such as the EUDR. Original research papers, reviews, and commentaries with a focus on deforestation and forest degradation driven by agricultural expansion or commodities with relevance to the EUDR and zero-deforestation initiatives are invited. Spatial scales may cover plot, landscape, and large-scale assessments. Time series analysis techniques that assess the timing and duration for deforestation and forest degradation as a result of agricultural activities, as well as timber extraction, are further encouraged.

Articles may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Advanced remote sensing technologies;
• Big data, GeoAI, and GIS integration;
• Land-use and land-cover change;
• Mapping agroforestry systems;
• Mapping crop commodities of EUDR relevance (cacao, cattle, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soy);
• Mapping timber plantations;
• Deforestation monitoring;
• Forest degradation;
• Regulatory compliance;
• Zero-deforestation;
• Sustainability governance.

Dr. Melvin Lippe
Guest Editor

Dr. Margret Köthke
Guest Editor Assistant

Dr. Ramon Felipe Bicudo Silva
Dr. Arief Wijaya
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• advanced remote sensing technologies
• big data, GeoAI, and GIS integration
• land cover and land use change
• deforestation monitoring
• forest degradation
• regulatory compliance
• zero-deforestation
• sustainability governance