Posts By
Tara O'Shea

Tara O’Shea is the Director of Forest Programs at Planet.

Decoupling Commodities Production from Deforestation

Stories

Decoupling deforestation from commodities production is critical to climate and sustainability solutions. Today, over two-thirds of tropical deforestation occurs due to the production of just four commodities: cattle, soy, palm oil, and pulp and timber. However, global supply chains are complex, and commercial-grade solutions to account for and manage deforestation risks remain […]

Universal Access to Satellite Monitoring Paves the Way to Protect the World’s Tropical Forests

News

In September 2020, Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment awarded an international contract to Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), who, in partnership with Planet and Airbus, have since been providing universal access to high-resolution satellite monitoring of the tropics to support efforts to stop deforestation and save the world’s tropical forests. The contract is […]

Planet, KSAT and Airbus Awarded First-Ever Global Contract to Combat Deforestation

News

Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment today awarded an international contract to Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), who, together with Planet and Airbus, will provide universal access to high-resolution satellite monitoring of the tropics in order to support efforts to stop deforestation and save the world’s tropical forests. Through this program, the coalition […]

Land Cover and Land Use: Driving Solutions with Planet Data

Stories

Sustainably managing land cover and land use is critical to meeting climate, sustainable development and food security goals around the world. Fortunately, advances in Earth observation and geospatial analysis technologies are helping us do just that. Take agricultural commodities production, for example. In 2012, Global Consumer Goods corporations signed the global New […]

UNFAO and Planet SEPAL Collaboration Drives Conservation Solutions Across Tropics

Stories

In September 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) partnered with Planet to provide high spatial and temporal resolution satellite imagery to support the national forest monitoring systems of eight tropical forested countries: Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Ghana, Indonesia, Mexico and Mozambique. Just […]

Researchers Use Planet Data to Investigate Pollution in Beijing During COVID-19 Crisis

Stories

The Satellites for Climate Action initiative— powered by Planet, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the state of California—has helped enable researchers to examine surprising information about power plant emissions. China has been experiencing the lowest recorded air pollution levels over the last month, due in part to limited transportation, closed factories and construction sites […]

Monitoring Wildfire Risk Using Space and AI

News

Planet, Salo Sciences, and Vibrant Planet are announcing a partnership to develop the California Forest Observatory (CFO)—a new platform that will dynamically map forest structure and fuel loads down to the tree level, statewide. Combining satellite imagery and artificial intelligence (AI), along with weather, climate, population, and infrastructure data, and supported through […]

Planet Partners with 2nd Annual Women in Data Science Datathon, Building Awareness and Solutions in Deforestation

Stories

In partnership with Women in Data Science (WiDS), the West Big Data Innovation Hub, and Figure Eight, Planet is bringing its unique dataset to a competition that challenges participants to use data science to build awareness and solutions for tropical deforestation and palm oil production. The competition, launching today on Kaggle, comes […]

Planet Hosts 150+ International Governors, State Secretaries, & Researchers at Climate.EO Event

Stories

Earth observation technologies continue to play a vital role in our understanding of global climate change. To advance these efforts and inspire deeper commitments to sustainability, Planet and Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment co-hosted Climate.EO, an affiliate event of the Global Climate Action Summit. Held at Planet’s San Francisco headquarters, Climate.EO […]