Satellite Land Monitoring System (SLMS)
National forest cover, forest types, land cover and the satellite data and methods behind them.
National Forest Cover
Latest: 2021 National Forest Resources Assessment
Forest by canopy density, 2021
2021 was mapped from WorldView imagery; all other years from Landsat. The 2021 assessment used WorldView very high-resolution satellite imagery, while 2010–2018 used Landsat (30 m). The finer WorldView images detect small and open forest patches and trees outside forests that Landsat misses, especially in dryland counties. The rise from 5.8% (2018) to 8.83% (2021) therefore mainly reflects the change of imagery and method, not real forest gain: do not read 2018 → 2021 as a trend.
Earlier series (Landsat, SLEEK)
Forest cover and forest cover change for activity data come from the land cover / land use maps of the System for Land-based Emission Estimation in Kenya (SLEEK), recognised as official government information across the land sector.
In 2018, forest covered 3,462,536 ha, 5.8% of Kenya's land area: 2,205,189 ha dense, 816,174 ha moderate and 441,173 ha open forest.
Source: Ministry of Environment and Forestry, National Forest Monitoring System in the Republic of Kenya, Version 1 (Draft), February 2021. Chapter 5.1.1 and Appendix 1.
Source: 2021 National Forest Resources Assessment, Kenya Forest Service (WorldView very high-resolution imagery).