This document discusses challenges with using local case studies to understand global issues like land change. Specifically, it notes that case studies are often biased towards areas that are easily accessible to researchers, known as the "streetlight effect". It also discusses how meta-studies of local research can be globally biased if they disproportionately represent certain regions that have been more frequently studied. The document proposes developing online tools to help synthesize local knowledge from around the world to enable more comprehensive global analysis and overcome some of these biases.