WRI brought together world-class experts to form the Global Pasture Watch consortium and produce the first high-resolution global datasets to monitor grasslands and livestock grazing areas. The data can help governments, landowners and others better protect and manage critical grassland ecosystems.
The Challenge
Grasslands cover more of Earth’s ice-free land than any other ecosystem. These underappreciated landscapes are crucial for biodiversity, climate mitigation and food security, among other benefits.
However, the lack of consistent and comparable global data on grasslands’ changing extent and use has hindered their effective management. Without the right information, governments, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and others — many of whom depend on grasslands for sustenance and livelihoods — face barriers in making the right land-use choices.
WRI’s Role
WRI’s Land & Carbon Lab initiative convened the Global Pasture Watch consortium, bringing together experts in geospatial monitoring, ecology, agriculture and machine learning. The consortium has been developing free, flexible and open data resources and tools to improve the monitoring of natural grasslands and livestock pastures. Access to this information can help lead to better land-use decisions.
WRI collaborated with leading institutions such as OpenGeoHub Foundation, the GIS Laboratory of the Federal University of Goias, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis to develop a collaborative data creation process, incorporating groundbreaking technological advancements and methodologies that allow for easy improvements and updates. For example, the team developed a Time-Series Iteration Reconstruction Framework, a computational framework that can quickly and efficiently reduce the size of large satellite-based datasets — a critical step for creating data that is both cost-effective and publicly available.
The Global Pasture Watch consortium also conducted regional trainings and engaged with people representing Indigenous groups, local communities and other stakeholders to understand the risks and benefits of open grassland mapping products.
The Outcome
The Global Pasture Watch consortium produced the first comprehensive, high-resolution (30-meter) global datasets on grassland extent, productivity and management, filling critical data gaps on the state of the world’s grasslands. Developed in just over two years, the timely and actionable data enable governments, landowners and others to monitor changes in the world’s grasslands for the first time and make better decisions around agriculture and land-use planning.
Early adopters are also using the open data to design their own tools and analyses. For example, AI4SoilHealth is creating maps that will help farmers across Europe monitor and predict soil health. The University of Twente is using Global Pasture Watch data to predict how Europe’s organic soil carbon density will change over time.
Moving forward, the consortium plans to release additional data sets, such as primary productivity and short vegetation height, that will provide even more visibility into the world’s grasslands and livestock pastures.