The images below show different areas of the Guatemala rainforest ecoregions (Petén and Alta Verapaz). The images were created by merging separate SAR images from the Envisat and ERS-1 and 2 satellites, acquired at different dates during the missions. Guatemala has one of the most extensive and diverse forest systems in Central America. The country is home to 8,681 species of plants, of which 13.5 percent are endemic. Today forests cover between a quarter and a third of the country, but this is fast disappearing.

Between 1990 and 2005, Guatemala lost 17 percent of its total forest cover and deforestation rates have increased by nearly 13 percent since the close of the 1990s. Recent surveys have found extensive illegal logging in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve and the Laguna del Tigre national park. Most forest loss in Guatemala results from colonisation, which leads to agriculture and fuelwood collection. With the pressure of increasing populations around protected areas, such as national parks, illegal timber harvesting and land clearance also occurs, as well as for the purposes of agriculture. Fires set for land clearance in nearby fields often spread into protected forest areas, and the fires then spread out of control. For example, in 1998 fires burned more than 160,000 acres (65,000 hectares) of the Maya Biosphere Reserve. While 27 percent of Guatemala's land is protected, most of these areas generally amount to little more than paper parks.

The Petén basin of northern Guatemala, often referred to as the Maya lowlands, is experiencing massive deforestation. From 2000 to 2008, 2.64% percent of this region has been deforested. Such large-scale deforestation has been shown to affect regional surface temperatures and moisture. While forested areas do not differ much from deforested areas in the wet season, in the dry season deforested areas experience much higher surface temperature and lower moisture contents when compared to forested areas. Such regional climatic changes could make the restoration of deforested areas increasingly difficult.

This first multi-colour image shows the status of deforestation in the San Roman Biological Reserve and the Machaquila Forest Reserve. The areas of rainforest where deforestation has occurred is identifiable as large areas in green and blue and clearly shows deforestation in these Biosphere Reserves.

This second multi-colour image shows deforestation in the Laguna Lachua Natural Park (Alta Verapaz Region - Maya Reserve). The areas where deforestation is occurring is identifiable as large areas in red and green.

This third multi-colour image, shows deforestation in the Laguna del Tigre National Park (Petén Region). The areas where deforestation is occurring is identifiable as large areas in green and blue.