Moving from principles to practice: A global survey of intermediary reforestation organizations

Reforestation is an attractive nature-based solution given its potential to deliver benefits to climate, biodiversity, and human communities. A growing number of intermediary organizations are mounting large-scale reforestation campaigns by funding and supporting local partner networks and communities worldwide. Yet, uncertainty over standards of practice and transparency undermines confidence in these initiatives. We invited 128 intermediary organizations to participate in a survey evaluating their commitments to project permanence, social and ecological safeguards, and financial transparency. We received direct responses from 55% of organizations and reviewed non-respondents based on systematic website searches. We also conducted targeted searches to corroborate claims for monitoring and financial details. Many organizations cited voluntary carbon market standards, although carbon was only the third most common goal behind improving livelihoods and biodiversity conservation. Encouragingly, 87% of organizations claimed requirements for monitoring outcomes beyond the first year, yet only 55% required that the funding source for ongoing maintenance and monitoring be specified in budgets. Organizations commonly provide summaries of estimated tree survival, carbon capture, and number of participants aggregated across projects or case-examples, but only 11% systematically publicly share data for all projects through developed dashboards or registries. To improve public trust in reforestation efforts, we advocate for increasing transparency about organizational practices and outcomes, including sharing georeferenced project locations. To this end, our data are publicly available through an online platform hosted by Mongabay, a global environmental journalism nonprofit.