It is a collaborative effort between the European Space Agency (ESA) and multiple research institutions worldwide, utilizing imagery from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2.
The forest class is coded as 10 and is defined as areas where tree cover is more than 10%.
This land cover includes classes below the canopy, like shrubs, built-up areas, and plantations, like oil palm and olive trees. It also includes tree-covered areas with seasonally or permanently flooded with freshwater, except for mangroves.
The product assesses accuracy through statistical verification, map visual comparison, and spatial accuracy verification.
More than 200,000 reference points were used in the map visual comparison to evaluate its accuracy and assess its spatial uncertainty. Its overall accuracy was determined to be 74.4%.