GFW is an initiative of the World Resources Institute (WRI), with partners including Google, USAID, the University of Maryland (UMD), Esri, Vizzuality and many other academic, non-profit, public, and private organizations.

[1][2][3][4][5] The second iteration of GFW was released in February 2014, and continues to add information at multiple time scales and spatial resolutions to track deforestation.

[8][9][10][11] GFW contributed notable data and analysis to reporting on the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis, including revealing that approximately 35% of the fires in Indonesia occurred in agricultural concessions.

The forest change data have been used to measure global deforestation rates and to detect and monitor illegal clearing activity, primarily in Indonesia.

Multinational companies use the GFW platform to track their supply chain, purportedly ensuring that they meet "no deforestation" commitments.