CTrees uses AWS to track carbon in every living tree on Earth

CTrees is a nonprofit organization on a mission to track carbon in every living tree on Earth to accelerate natural climate solutions. Founded in 2022, CTrees developed the first global system to monitor, report, and verify (MRV) carbon stocks and land-use activities for every ecosystem on land, bridging the critical gap between scientific innovation and the data needs of policy and markets.

In 2024, CTrees secured the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Imagine Grant, combining cash funding and cloud credits to enhance the organization’s flagship Jurisdictional MRV (JMRV) tool. This free, open data platform provides precise annual measurements of carbon stocks, forest area, emissions, and land use activities—revolutionizing how governments and organizations track climate policy progress and develop jurisdictional carbon credit programs.

Filling critical gaps in global climate data

Before using the Imagine Grant funding to improve the JMRV tool, CTrees faced significant obstacles in scaling its carbon monitoring capabilities to meet urgent global climate needs. The organization’s team of leading scientists and engineers recognized a critical gap in operational data on carbon in forests and ecosystems, particularly in countries in the global south where accurate monitoring is most needed but least available.

Governments worldwide needed reliable data to measure and report progress on their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement and benchmark the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) global stocktake of climate action. However, existing systems lacked the resolution, accuracy, and accessibility required for effective decision-making.

CTrees needed to enhance the JMRV platform’s capabilities by integrating higher image resolution satellite data, ingesting massive volumes of information from multiple sources, and improving frontend visualization using deep learning AI. The platform’s unique ability to measure carbon stock both inside and outside of forests while attributing emissions to deforestation, fire, and degradation, required sophisticated cloud infrastructure to process and deliver this complex data at scale.

As climate change accelerates, policymakers and researchers need immediate access to accurate, science-based data to inform critical decisions about natural climate solutions and forest conservation efforts.

Scaling global carbon monitoring with AWS

CTrees used a comprehensive suite of AWS services to build and improve the JMRV platform from data collection to final product delivery:

• Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) – Served as the foundation for storing all datasets across the pipeline, from raw satellite inputs to processed carbon model outputs—facilitating seamless integration of external data sources such as NASA and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI)
• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances with GPU acceleration – Powered the training and inference of deep learning models for biomass and degradation analysis
• AWS managed Airflow – Orchestrated the complex data pipeline, with Ray on Amazon EC2 incorporated to parallelize processing and reduce model runtimes
• Interactive frontend deployment – Enabled by Amazon S3 and Mapbox integration to create an accessible user interface

The architecture adjustment enabled CTrees to scale model resolution from 1 kilometer to 100 meters, dramatically improving precision for more accurate monitoring of carbon stocks and land-use changes. This cloud-based approach allowed for ingestion of massive volumes of satellite data and the deployment of an interactive platform, instantly accessible to researchers and policymakers worldwide—thereby democratizing access to critical climate data.

Transforming global climate action through data

The results of CTrees’ AWS powered platform have been remarkable both in scale and impact. The JMRV platform now provides reliable jurisdictional-level statistics on forest area, carbon stocks in live biomass, gross emissions from land use activities, and gross removals for all forest and non-forest types globally across 263 countries and territories at a 100-meter resolution, covering the period from 2000–2023.

In 2024 alone, the digital JMRV platform was viewed over 4,000 times on the web, demonstrating significant engagement from the global research and policy community. CTrees has successfully integrated data from the JMRV platform with multiple partners, including Climate Trace and the LEAF Coalition, expanding the reach and application of their critical climate data.

The platform’s most recent data release in November 2024 revealed crucial insights for global climate action:

• A 15 percent decrease in deforestation emissions across the tropics, coupled with a concerning 73 percent increase in tropical forest degradation emissions
• A 28 percent decrease in emissions from deforestation in Amazon basin countries
• Documentation of record-breaking forest fires in Canada in 2023 that burned more than 15 million hectares and produced approximately 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from the loss of live biomass

These findings demonstrate the platform’s vital role in tracking both progress and challenges in global forest conservation. Through partnerships with organizations such as the Governors’ Climate and Forests (GCF) Task Force, CTrees is training jurisdictions to use JMRV data to measure the impact of their forest conservation efforts and reduce deforestation-related emissions.

Insights for nonprofit technology implementation

Drawing from their experience building a global-scale platform with AWS, the CTrees team offers valuable guidance for nonprofits undertaking similar technology projects. They emphasize the importance of detailed planning, creating comprehensive, realistic plans for AWS architecture and associated costs early in the process to prevent costly surprises and enable efficient resource utilization.

Success also hinges on tapping into AWS support by working closely with assigned account managers and solutions architects to optimize AWS service usage and platform development. Equally crucial is their commitment to user-centered design, with frequent end-user engagement from the project’s outset so the technology built is both effective and relevant.

CTrees’ JMRV platform exemplifies how cloud technology can amplify nonprofit impact globally. By providing accessible, science-based data on carbon stocks and forest changes, CTrees is establishing a global standard for measuring progress on climate mitigation policies and programs, guiding conservation efforts, and identifying targeted areas for investment in natural climate solutions.

How you can support CTrees

Join CTrees’ forest revolution by exploring the organization’s data on this website, subscribing to this monthly newsletter for forest carbon trends and climate policy updates, or learning more about how you can support the organization’s mission. CTrees’ work goes beyond measuring trees—it provides critical information for informed climate action. Together, we can protect our world’s forests for generations to come, ensuring every tree counts in our global climate strategy.