MapBiomas Alerta is a system for validating and refining alerts of deforestation and loss of natural vegetation across all regions of Colombia using high-resolution satellite imagery.

This system is continuously updated by MapBiomas Colombia, with the support of the Fundación Gaia Amazonas, incorporating alerts from various monitoring systems.

WARNING!

MapBiomas Alerta publishes alerts regarding deforestation and loss of natural vegetation based on detections generated by various provider systems, both nationally and internationally, which have been validated using high-resolution (3.7 m) satellite imagery from the Planet Scope constellation by the technical team at MapBiomas Alerta Colombia. MapBiomas does not determine the legality, liability, or restrictions related to the deforestation or natural vegetation loss alerts published on the platform. The assessment of these matters is the sole responsibility of users, public agencies, or private and financial institutions that have free access to the open data provided by MapBiomas Alerta Colombia. MapBiomas is not responsible for decisions made by these agencies and institutions based on the published alerts, as these represent impartial and verifiable data on the existence of deforestation and loss of natural vegetation in the country.

Below are clarifications regarding the scope and limitations of the alert data:

1. Alert period: the operational phase aims to validate all alerts for deforestation and loss of natural vegetation detected within the national territory starting in 2020. Initially, alerts are reviewed in reverse chronological order, beginning with the year 2025. The detection date is the date on which the providers (GLAD, RADD, SMByC, among others) detected the alert and does not necessarily represent the exact moment when the deforestation or natural vegetation loss event occurred. An alert detected in 2025, for example, could have begun in 2024. Data for the current year is partial and is constantly being updated. Its availability is subject to the time required for processing and publishing the alerts.
   
2. Alert Area: during the refinement stage, a generalization process is applied that may result in a variation of up to 5% (either an increase or a decrease) in the final area. The minimum area required for the publication of each alert on the MapBiomas Alerta Colombia platform is 0.1 hectares.
   
3. Non-Woody Vegetation: MapBiomas Alerta Colombia uses deforestation alerts from the following detection systems: GLAD-L, GLAD-S2, RADD, SMByC/IDEAM, JJ-FAST, DIST, Fundación Gaia Amazonas, and LUCA. Among these systems, DIST, Gaia, and LUCA generate alerts for non-woody vegetation in ecosystems such as páramos and savannas. The other systems may occasionally detect losses of vegetation cover other than forest. These alert sources are especially important for the Andean region, the Orinoquía, and the upper part of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which contain natural ecosystems dominated by non-woody vegetation.
   
4. Legality, Responsibility, and/or Restrictions Regarding Validated Alerts of Deforestation and Natural Vegetation Loss Published on the Platform: MapBiomas Alerta Colombia does not conduct this type of assessment. It is the responsibility of users (environmental agencies, financial institutions, local governments, and others) to supplement and verify this information using data sources from the relevant authorities.
   
5. New Alerts: MapBiomas Alerta frequently checks the alerts officially reported by the main detection systems; however, some alerts require a longer validation period due to technical limitations such as image quality affected by cloud cover, a high volume of alerts during periods with increased incidence of vegetation loss, and the time required for each detection system to publish data for public access, among other factors. The number of pending alerts may vary over time, as they are generated and published continuously.
   
6. Omissions: the inclusion of various early warning detection systems as inputs for MapBiomas Alerta Colombia reduces both under-reporting and over-reporting. The platform has the capability to integrate and harmonize various alert systems within a unified environment, enabling evidence-based methodological convergence. However, there remains a possibility of omission due to the failure of some alert sources to report data or to areas of land loss smaller than the minimum threshold established during the preprocessing and processing stages of the alerts in the system. (For more information, see the complete methodology at https://colombia.alerta.mapbiomas.org/metodo-mapbiomas-alerta/).
   
7. Cancellations: Some alerts may be canceled after being published on the platform due to agricultural dynamics, such as crop harvesting, forestry, among others. These alerts are not reflected in the statistics or on the map. However, they remain in the platform’s database for consultation using the corresponding unique identifier or alert code.

If you have suggestions, questions, corrections, or ideas that could contribute to the project, please contact us at the following email address: mapbiomas.colombia@gaiaamazonas.org