Summary
Deforestation-free value chains require public and private sector decision-makers to monitor the land cover dynamics within the production landscapes that supply the world with agricultural commodities. Experience proves that users require periodic monitoring of both the dynamics between forest and no forest, and between agricultural land cover and tree forest cover inside production landscapes. The monitoring of such dynamics is essential to achieve deforestation-free commodity supply chains. Practitioners who are unfamiliar with Geographical Information Systems but involved in deforestation-free commodities must choose whether to rely on existing openly accessible global forest monitoring services, contracting private service providers, or developing national monitoring systems themselves. This can be a difficult task because of the increased availability of Land Use Change Monitoring (LUCM) solutions. This research paper provides a guide to non-specialized practitioners through a review of the characteristics of a small sample of LUCM solutions from around the world. It focuses on the suitability and usability of these LUCM solutions to monitor if a production area gains or loses tree forest cover from year-to-year as a result of a specific agricultural activity.