Lead by: Mayra Milkovic, Marcos Rosa, Julia Shimbo, Tasso Azevedo, Marisa Fonseca 

Collaborators: Alessandro Samuel-Rosa, Ana Eljall, Ana Paula Silva, Artur Lupinetti, Caio Coimbra, Cícero Cardoso, Dhemerson Conciani, Eduardo Rosa, Eduardo Velez, João Siqueira, Mario Barroso, Sandra Ríos, Santiago Baeza, Sérgio Oliveira, Taciara Horst

MapBiomas is a collaborative mapping international network in the tropics and subtropics dedicated to generating a time series of maps that are useful, updated, accurate, complete, and relevant to the local context, aiming to foster sustainable management, conservation of natural resources, and climate change mitigation. It started in Brazil in 2015 producing annual land cover and land use maps, involving a local multi-institutional network of partners including NGOs, universities, and technology companies (https://mapbiomas.org). It has then expanded to other countries, all of them involving a network of local institutions. This expansion came along with the development in Brazil of other MapBiomas' initiatives related to deforestation alerts, water, fire, soil, pasture, irrigation, and mining mapping. When relevant for the local context, these other products are being expanded to other countries as well.

We work as a network committed to generating open data, methods, tools, and information to qualify understanding, analysis, and decision-making on land change. We work in a collaborative platform designed to incorporate contributions from different institutions interested in collaborating and oriented to expand and multiply in other territories and contexts. 

The essence that defines us as MapBiomas Network - our DNA -  can be summarized as a collaboration effort to produce free, open and robust data on land cover & land use and make it available through the internet. For  more information concerning MapBiomas Network, practices, history, products and initiatives, relationships within the network and between the network and users, please visit this document.

The Good Practices Guidelines serves as a guide to MapBiomas’ initiatives and the new comings. At MapBiomas, we are committed to continuous improvement. Our products evolve and are constantly revised to deliver consistent, useful, and better map collections relevant to local contexts.

The Good Practice Guidelines (GPG) document includes technical recommendations, reference materials, standards, examples, lessons learned, and directions on developing different aspects of MapBiomas's processes and products.

It also includes guidelines and criteria for organizing the network, the governance structure, the working groups, and coordination/thematic teams. The document also presents guidelines for updating and organizing relevant information for the collections/products releases. 

The GPG is a live document that evolves over time; it is developed collaboratively where all members can contribute, revise, update, and give feedback. The first version of this document consolidates the registrations and information on lessons learned and how to improve and guarantee the best practices of MapBiomas initiatives in the following topics:

This chapter describes the spatial and temporal reference scope for each country or region to implement the mapping initiatives for land cover and land use, fire scars, water, etc., in different collections, as well as guidelines for publishing the related products. 

This chapter describes the best practices concerning the main characteristics of the legends of land cover and land use mappings, how the legend evolves over the collections, and the documents that describe different aspects of the legend in the products and methods shared in the websites and platforms.

This chapter presents good practice recommendations for all stages of producing land cover and land use maps, from creating the satellite image mosaic, to filters and post-classification processing, as well as for generating products derived from final classifications, documentation and the process of improving collections.

This chapter describes the procedures for assessing the quality of the annual map series, the publication of this information and other information necessary for the transparency of the initiatives and the dialogue with external agents to be carried out by the MapBiomas teams.

This chapter presents the main guidelines for efficient code writing, organizing and naming folders and files of all the initiatives in all countries and regions.

This chapter describes good practices for publishing and facilitating the access of maps, data and communication support materials produced by MapBiomas for different audiences on platforms, websites and through other channels and tools. 

This chapter describes the MapBiomas Network operating model. It also describes the organization, governance and management strategies and tools of the Global Network.

This chapter provides guidelines for the best communication practices, ensuring that as a Network, our message is clear, objective and, above all, available to everyone. Here, we offer a structure that organizes the main communication tools and strategies, always focusing on maximizing the reach and relevance of our data.

This chapter describes the types and sources of financial support, the strategies for fundraising efforts and resources allocation between the network members, guidelines for proposals and reports. It also introduces general rules and guidelines related to fundraising and the relationship with donors. 

This chapter provides guidelines for the organization of the MapBiomas Award, including work application, selection of winners, award ceremony and communication.