Suitability of Global Forest Change data to report forest cover estimates at national level in Gabon

Although the UMD GFC dataset provides a reliable means of producing area statistics at national level combined with appropriate sample reference data, thus offering an alternative to nationally produced datasets (i) the classification errors associated with the Global dataset have non-negligible effects on both the estimate and the precision which supports the more general statement that map data should not be used alone to produce area estimates, and (ii) the maps obtained from the UMD GFC dataset require specific calibration of the tree cover percentage representing a non-negligible effort requiring specialized staff and equipment. Guidelines on how to use and further improve UMD GFC maps for national reporting are suggested. However, this additional effort would still most likely be less than the production of national based maps.