Cecil and Kanop partner to improve the accessibility of global forest screening & monitoring

Cecil has partnered with Kanop to provide its Screening and Monitoring datasets on Cecil's nature data platform.

This post introduces the two datasets, explains how to access them through Cecil, and outlines how these datasets support use cases across the private and public sectors.

To get started with using Kanop data through Cecil, read through our documentation or schedule a call with our CEO and co-founder, Alex Logan.

Overview: Kanop's Screening and Monitoring datasets

Kanop has built two geospatial datasets for screening and monitoring global forests – Screening and Monitoring. The datasets both have global coverage and quantify canopy cover (%), canopy height (m), forest cover, living aboveground biomass (Mg/ha), living belowground biomass (Mg/ha), total living biomass (Mg/ha), living biomass carbon stock (Mg C/ha), and living biomass stock in carbon dioxide equivalents (Mg CO? eq/ha). ?

The datasets are built from a deep neural network trained on airborne and spaceborne LiDAR data using a combination of satellite observations. Screening is delivered annually at 25 m resolution with an archive from 2013 onwards, so is designed for baselining or feasibility studies on potential forest assets. Monitoring is delivered annually at 25 m from 2013 onwards or 10 m resolution from 2017 onwards, and includes 95% confidence intervals – making it suitable for tracking change in forest assets over time.

Accessing Kanop data on Cecil

Cecil’s platform makes nature data consistent, joinable, and ready for analysis. This includes data acquisition from selected providers, data preparation to a preferred CRS and spatial resolution, and secure data access to connect nature data directly to your analysis workflows.

We’re delighted to announce that we’re making Kanop's Screening and Monitoring datasets available on the Cecil platform. Using Cecil, you can request these datasets for any number of sites (AOIs), configure them to the CRS and resolution you require, and receive the data in a database to use directly in your analysis. Our integration with Kanop means that you don’t need to worry about managing file storage, building your own integrations, or pre-processing geospatial raster data. Cecil delivers the data in a consistent structure that is optimised for analysis and can be securely connected to your chosen tools, such as Python, R, GIS, and BI applications.

Read our documentation to learn more about accessing data through Cecil.

Use cases for screening and monitoring global forests

Organisations around the world already use Kanop's datasets to meet the standards of the Voluntary Carbon Market, make Scope 3 nature and climate-related disclosures in accordance with CSR frameworks, and comply with the EU's deforestation-free regulation. Below we have outlined four use cases for leveraging these datasets.?

Cecil has partnered with Kanop because we believe plant aboveground biomass datasets are useful to a wide variety of data teams across the private and public sectors. As nature markets mature, data teams are demanding more sophisticated data to evaluate, baseline, and monitor nature at the site level. Plant aboveground biomass is a fundamental part of every terrestrial ecosystem, making Screening and Monitoring datasets some of the core tools for the job. Cecil makes these datasets accessible to teams with or without geospatial expertise and in a way that enables teams to analyse, baseline, and monitor forest biomass at scale.

Carbon Markets

Carbon credit investors and project developers can use Screening data to streamline due diligence on new assets, reducing the need for additional site visits. This includes baselining aboveground carbon at project start and identifying areas of low canopy cover for replanting.

Deforestation Monitoring

Upcoming EU Deforestation Regulations (EUDR) will require thousands of companies to prove their products are deforestation-free. Teams are drawing on Screening and Monitoring datasets to facilitate this, for instance by detecting past clear-cutting by monitoring for sudden drops in canopy cover, height, or aboveground carbon.

Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Organisations with significant land footprints, like companies with supply chains that span the globe, are looking to Kanop's datasets as a feasible solution for environmental reporting at scale.

Nature Conservation and Restoration

While not a replacement for in-situ data, Screening and Monitoring datasets can support nature conservation teams by providing a baseline of forest biomass and structure to guide on-the-ground management decisions. More broadly, these datasets are useful for designing and managing protected areas, supporting global conservation goals like the EU’s 30 by 30 initiative to preserve 30% of Earth’s land and water by 2030.