The "Tree Proximate People" (TPP) dataset provides an estimate of the number of people living in or within 500 meters of trees outside forests (forest-proximate people) for the year 2019 with a spatial resolution of 100 meters at a global level. Trees outside forests are defined as areas classified as agricultural lands with at least 10% tree cover.
For more detail, such as the theory behind, the definition of parameters, and to cite this data, see: Newton, P., Castle, S.E., Kinzer, A.T., Miller, D.C., Oldekop, J.A., Linhares-Juvenal, T., Pina, L., Madrid, M., & de Lamo, J. 2022. The number of forest- and tree-proximate people: a new methodology and global estimates. Background Paper to The State of the World’s Forests 2022 report. Rome, FAO.
Contact points:
Maintainer: Leticia Pina
Maintainer: Sarah E., Castle
Data lineage:
The TPP data are generated using Google Earth Engine.
Trees outside forests (TOFs) are defined by the Copernicus Global Land Cover (CGLC) (Buchhorn et al. 2020) fractional cover data layer using a minimum of 10% tree cover on agricultural lands. Any area classified as land with TOFs sized ≥ 1 ha in 2019 was included in this definition. Lands classified as forests in CGLC were excluded from the analysis.
Agricultural lands were defined using the FAO-LCCS2 land use classification layer from MODIS Land Cover (MCD12Q1.006). Croplands were defined as the total of three classifications: 1) “Herbaceous Croplands”: dominated by herbaceous annuals (<2m) with at least 60% cover and a cultivated fraction >60%, 2) “Natural Herbaceous/Croplands Mosaics”: mosaics of small-scale cultivation 40-60% with natural shrub or herbaceous vegetation, and 3) “Forest/Cropland Mosaics”: mosaics of small-scale cultivation 40-60% with >10% natural tree cover. Potential grazing lands were defined as the classification: “Natural Herbaceous”: dominated by herbaceous annuals (<2m) with at least 10% cover. Agricultural land (cropland plus potential grazing land) was defined as the total of the four classifications.
Population density was defined by the WorldPop global population data for 2019 (WorldPop 2018). High density urban populations were excluded from the analysis. High density urban areas were defined as any contiguous area with a total population (using 2019 WorldPop data for population) of at least 50,000 people and comprised of pixels all of which met at least one of two criteria: either the pixel a) had at least 1,500 people per square km, or b) was classified as “built-up” land use by the CGLC dataset (where “built-up” was defined as land covered by buildings and other manmade structures) (Dijkstra et al. 2020).
Using these datasets, any rural people living in or within 500 meters of TOFs in 2019 were classified as forest proximate people. Euclidean distance was used as the measure to create a 500-meter buffer zone around each TOF pixel.
The scripts for generating the tree-proximate people and the rural-urban datasets using different parameters or for different years are published and available to users.
For more detail, such as the theory behind this indicator and the definition of parameters, and to cite this data, see: Newton, P., Castle, S.E., Kinzer, A.T., Miller, D.C., Oldekop, J.A., Linhares-Juvenal, T., Pina, L., Madrid, M., & de Lamo, J. 2022. The number of forest- and tree-proximate people: a new methodology and global estimates. Background Paper to The State of the World’s Forests 2022 report. Rome, FAO.
References:
Buchhorn, M., Smets, B., Bertels, L., De Roo, B., Lesiv, M., Tsendbazar, N.E., Herold, M., Fritz, S., 2020. Copernicus Global Land Service: Land Cover 100m: collection 3 epoch 2019. Globe.
Dijkstra, L., Florczyk, A.J., Freire, S., Kemper, T., Melchiorri, M., Pesaresi, M. and Schiavina, M., 2020. Applying the degree of urbanisation to the globe: A new harmonised definition reveals a different picture of global urbanisation. Journal of Urban Economics, p.103312.
WorldPop (www.worldpop.org - School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton; Department of Geography and Geosciences, University of Louisville; Departement de Geographie, Universite de Namur) and Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, 2018. Global High Resolution Population Denominators Project - Funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1134076). https://dx.doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/WP00645
Online resources:
GEE asset for "Tree proximate people – Agricultural lands, 500m cutoff distance"
