Atlas › Kenya › Forest loss

Mau Forest

Encroachment into Kenya's largest closed-canopy forest.

788.7 hectares changed — new vegetation · Before: 1 Jan 2018 – 31 Mar 2018 · After: 1 Jan 2023 – 31 Mar 2023 · -0.550, 35.650

BEFORE 2018-03

AFTER 2023-03

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788.7 haarea changed

596areas flagged

6,416 haarea examined

2satellites used

What changed, by type

679.0 haNew vegetation

65.4 haVegetation cleared

44.4 haBurnt ground

Land changes in both directions at once. SCOPE reports every type it measured, not only the one that makes the better headline.

What SCOPE found

Vegetation cleared — 14.5 ha
4.5 km north-east · between 23 Mar 2018 and 1 Jan 2023 · 96% sure

Vegetation cleared — 10.2 ha
3.8 km north-east · between 23 Mar 2018 and 1 Jan 2023 · 95% sure

New vegetation — 8.1 ha
3.0 km north-east · between 23 Mar 2018 and 1 Jan 2023 · 88% sure

New vegetation — 7.9 ha
2.9 km west · between 23 Mar 2018 and 1 Jan 2023 · 87% sure

New vegetation — 6.7 ha
4.9 km north-east · between 23 Mar 2018 and 1 Jan 2023 · 84% sure

How sure is this?

The strongest area (#1) has 96% confidence. It appears in 6 of 6 later clear images, so it is not a one-day artefact. Radar confirmed some of these areas; the others rest on optical and seasonal evidence. Confidence measures how strong the evidence for real surface change is; it does not identify the cause or who did it.

How it was measured

SCOPE used Sentinel-2 optical imagery at 10 m, cloud-masked and combined over each period, Sentinel-1 radar as an independent check , and the same season in earlier years so normal seasonal change is not reported as real change. The analysis took 32 seconds.

Now try it on a place you know

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