The global forest mapping is an extension to the USGS land cover mapping project. The forest mapping effort is aimed to: 1) develop a general, actual forest cover map linking to the USGS land cover database, 2) map broad forest cover categories that can be consistently extracted from AVHRR 1 km composite data, and 3) use the map to support the FAO year 2000 global forest survey.
Six land cover categories are initially targeted: closed forest, open forest, fragmented forest, woody savanna, other land cover, and water. These categories loosely follow canopy density definitions that have been suggested by FAO Forestry as required for global assessment using remotely sensed data (1995). The first three categories are considered to be forested land cover.
