Forest Products Data Provider · Head-to-head
Global Nature Watch (formerly Global Forest Watch) Open Data Portal vs US Census Bureau Annual Survey of Manufactures (NAICS 321 Wood Products)
Which forest products data provider data fits your job: Global Nature Watch Open Data Portal, or US Census Bureau Annual Survey of Manufactures. API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
Global Nature Watch (formerly Global Forest Watch) Open Data Portal
US Census Bureau Annual Survey of Manufactures (NAICS 321 Wood Products)
Coverage, side by side
| Global Nature Watch Open Data Portal | US Census Bureau Annual Survey of Manufactures | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic | Global land excluding Antarctica; country (iso), admin-1 and admin-2 summary tables | United States national totals plus state-level tables |
| Temporal | Tree cover loss 2001-2025 (v1.13); gain 2000-2012; carbon flux 2001-2024; alerts near-real-time | Survey cycles from 2008 to 2021 plus the 2022 ASM benchmark released April 2025 |
| Granularity | 30 m raster loss/gain, 10 m tropical tree cover; daily and weekly alert tables; country/admin summaries | Annual, by NAICS industry (six-digit detail in industry-product tables) and state |
What each contains
They tie on 1 attribute. Pick by fit, not by loyalty.
| Global Nature Watch Open Data Portal | US Census Bureau Annual Survey of Manufactures | |
|---|---|---|
| Geography | Global land excluding Antarctica; country (iso), admin-1 and admin-2 summary tables | United States national totals plus state-level tables |
| Temporal reach | Tree cover loss 2001-2025 (v1.13); gain 2000-2012; carbon flux 2001-2024; alerts near-real-time | Survey cycles from 2008 to 2021 plus the 2022 ASM benchmark released April 2025 |
| Granularity | 30 m raster loss/gain, 10 m tropical tree cover; daily and weekly alert tables; country/admin summaries | Annual, by NAICS industry (six-digit detail in industry-product tables) and state |
| Scale | 382 cataloged dataset entries, 360 flagged downloadable; 33 raster assets on the flagship loss layer | 238 documented API variables; nine table sets per cycle |
| Content rhythm | Event alerts over annual loss layers; flagship version stamped August 4, 2026 | Survey cycles released on a rolling schedule |
| Formats delivered | JSON, CSV, GeoTIFF, COG | — |
| Best for | Deforestation screening, carbon accounting, supply-chain land risk | US wood-product market sizing, shipment and payroll benchmarks |
Where they're equivalent
On paper, more than you would expect. Both are official-publisher records: WRI's platform and the Census Bureau's survey program.
The equivalence ends there. One is a monitoring system measured in hectares and megagrams; the other is a statistical survey measured in thousands of dollars. Nothing in either dictionary substitutes for the other.
Or take both in one feed
They compose cleanly because they occupy opposite halves of one problem, joined by nothing fancier than geography and year. Pull Nature Watch's country or admin-1 summary tables for the United States, keeping the forestry driver class and planted-forest type columns, then join those subnational geographies to the ASM's state-level tables for NAICS 321. The combined frame relates where American wood-product manufacturing concentrates - machinery investment, shipment values, payroll - to measured forest disturbance nearby, with Nature Watch supplying the physical signal and the ASM the economic one.
Two practical notes from the records. Align periods before joining, because one side is daily-to-annual and the other is a survey cycle whose prior-year figures get revised between releases. And expect to map admin codes to state lines yourself - neither dictionary ships the bridge. Or take both in one feed.
API, files, or your warehouse. Daily, weekly, or hourly.
Fair questions
Is Global Nature Watch better than Census ASM NAICS 321?
Different instruments, tied on craft - both score 8 out of 10. Global Nature Watch wins whenever the question is about land: 30 m tree cover loss for 2001-2025, daily deforestation alerts and carbon-flux columns for every country down to admin-2. The Census ASM wins whenever the question is American economics: shipments, value added, payroll and capital expenditure for NAICS 321 wood products across 238 variables. Many teams keep both.
What do Global Nature Watch and Census ASM NAICS 321 have in common?
Structure rather than substance. Both are official-publisher records delivered through their own APIs, both return JSON and CSV, both score 8 out of 10, and both reduce rows to a geography key, a period stamp and measured quantities. Beyond that skeleton they diverge completely: hectares and megagrams of forest change versus thousands of dollars of manufacturing activity.
Which dataset covers more geography, Global Nature Watch or Census ASM NAICS 321?
Global Nature Watch, decisively. It summarizes global land excluding Antarctica for every country and down to admin-1 and admin-2 areas. The Annual Survey of Manufactures covers the United States only - national totals plus state-level tables. Any question touching a non-US sourcing region needs Nature Watch; the ASM cannot follow.
Can one dataset substitute for the other inside a model?
No, and the dictionaries prove it. Global Nature Watch carries hectares of loss, megagrams of biomass and Mg CO2e flux but not one dollar figure; the Census ASM carries shipments, value added, payroll and capital expenditure but not one hectare. Any workflow that needs both signals runs both records - which is exactly what a merged Datadory feed is for.
Do Global Nature Watch and Census ASM NAICS 321 overlap at all?
Only conceptually - both describe the same industry from opposite ends. US forestry employment appears in neither dictionary the same way: the ASM counts employees and payroll at NAICS 321 establishments, while Nature Watch carries FAO-sourced forestry employment layers inside its 382-entry catalog but no establishment-level economics. Treat them as complementary layers rather than substitutes for the same numbers.
Which should a supply-chain risk team sample first?
Sample both, pick by fit. Teams screening timber sourcing start with Global Nature Watch's driver-classified loss per country or admin-2 area, refreshed daily. Teams pricing exposure in dollars add the Census ASM's NAICS 321 shipment and payroll benchmarks for the US leg. Datadory delivers each alone or merged onto one delivery calendar.