It’s wonderful to hear you want to join the forest restoration movement! If you’d like to become a partner, please get in touch with us via the contact page or write to sponsorship@weforest.org. Remember to share why you want to contribute and your ambition.
Sponsors can expense their contribution and get an invoice (with VAT). As a sponsor you get a personalised webpage on our website.
Donors make a charitable gift that can be tax-deductible. Donor logos can be featured on our website. Donate here.
You can donate from anywhere: your donations will be tax-deductible in most of Europe, USA and Canada, providing you donate via our selected partner in these countries. Please check our website for further information on donations.
The more the better for the planet and for you. Our colleagues will advise you. Contact them at sponsorship@weforest.org.
Greenwashing is not determinted by what you do but what you claim. Our team of experts can guide you in your choices and communication. You can contact us here.
The price of a tree varies depending on the project location and the type of restoration. We calculate the cost per tree or per hectare based on the total project cost and the resulting tree density (not the planting density) or total hectares restored. On average, the cost of a tree ranges between €1 and €3.
The cost varies depending on the restoration techniques used (for example, active planting or assisted natural regeneration), the types of livelihood activities supported (such as beekeeping) that help communities sustain themselves and protect their forests, and the local conditions and economy of each country.
As a non-profit organisation, our goal is to allocate as much funding as possible directly to our projects. However, to ensure the quality of both our projects and our services, we also invest in hiring skilled professionals where needed. For every euro received, our aim is to dedicate around 80% to programme development, implementation, research, monitoring and evaluation, and scaling our impact. Some years, we may need to invest slightly more in overheads to prepare for future growth.
Integrity is one of our core values. Since day one, every contribution has been assigned to a unique polygon with GPS coordinates, visible online. We also conduct annual external financial audits to ensure full transparency — these reports are available upon request.
WeForest has initiated the certification of selected projects under recognised carbon standards, such as Verra, to enable the generation of future carbon credits. This approach ensures long-term financial sustainability for local communities, extending support well beyond the typical 10-year implementation period. The new Verra standards certify projects for 40 years, providing a robust third-party verification framework that guarantees transparency, credibility, and high assurance for funders and stakeholders.
As a partner you have immediate access to pictures, videos and content for your own communications. New material is sent regularly throughout the year while you remain an active partner. See some examples of our pictures here. We also send biannual reports giving you project updates and stories from the field.
While we love the idea and receive many requests, hosting volunteers requires a large organisation with the capacity and space to manage them, which we intentionally avoid as we remain a lean team. We always welcome volunteers who wish to support us by spreading the word — talking about our work and sharing our posts on social media makes a real difference.
Trees are a unique way to celebrate somebody you love. Anyone can donate for trees via Global Giving.
We occasionally receive requests to visit our projects and truly value the opportunity to show the transformation on the ground. Visitors are always inspired by what they see. As our team is small and focused on project delivery, we reserve visits for our long-term partners and those making significant contributions.
WeForest provides a comprehensive scientific solution for revitalizing degraded forests in often overlooked geographies, empowering local communities (especially women) within forest landscapes to thrive while safeguarding their natural resources.
Since its establishment, WeForest (WF) has become a reference in combating soil degradation, water scarcity, extreme poverty, and the urgent challenge of global warming.
Since our launch in 2009, WeForest has raised US$62 million from over 450 corporate partners and 50 philanthropists and foundations. This funding has enabled us to restore over 83,000 hectares and grow over 110 million trees—across 25 projects in 9 countries—and to support sustainable livelihoods for over 600,000 people in underserved regions. In recognition of our work, we received the Mother Teresa Prize for Social Justice in 2021.
In 2009, social entrepreneur Bill Liao and Marie-Noelle Keijzer founded WeForest with a clear ambition: to offer a simple, scalable solution to some of the world’s greatest challenges — extreme poverty, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, and climate change. For Marie-Noelle, watching Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was the turning point. She had no idea the situation was so serious and felt compelled to take action. Find out more here.
We grow trees in areas that have the most impact on people, nature and the planet. We focus our efforts in the tropics for several reasons:
We usually plant during the rainy season, when the soil provides the best conditions for survival. The time between your sponsorship or donation and the actual tree planting varies depending on the region you support and the time of year. Important project activities – such as growing seedlings in the tree nurseries or providing training – happen all year round.
The age of the seedlings depends on the ecosystem, and project location. In Ethiopia, for example, most seedlings are planted after being taken care of for nine months in a tree nursery. In Brazil, transplanting can already happen after four months.
Our restoration focuses on forest recovery, conservation, and agroforestry, monitored through vegetation and fauna assessments, and satellite imagery remote sensing to track forest growth.
All contributions are assigned to polygons.
Planting a tree is easy; anyone can do it. However, planting the wrong tree in the wrong place can sometimes do more harm than good. What truly matters is growing healthy, resilient forests that can thrive over time. We use a combination of methods — including tree planting, agroforestry, assisted natural regeneration, and forest protection — depending on the conditions. Our forest restoration strategy takes into account both ecological and socio-economic needs, carefully selecting tree species that bring value to the environment and to the people living in and around the forests.
WeForest’s impact is measured through a rigorous quality assurance process built around three pillars of Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR):
Stewardship: Ensuring strong forest governance through co-created rules, community engagement, and compliance monitoring.
Restoration: Tracking forest recovery and biodiversity using field assessments and satellite monitoring.
Economic Resilience: Measuring improvements in forest-friendly livelihoods, food security, and income diversification, especially for women-led households.
These processes are led by WeForest teams and validated through external audits and certifications such as the Preferred by Nature Ecosystem Restoration Standards.
Not all trees will survive — that’s part of nature. In some locations, our survival rates exceed 80%, which is well above the industry average. When we quote tree numbers to our partners, we refer to the trees that are expected to survive, not just the ones that are planted.
Without community involvement, we could not achieve lasting results. Our projects empower local communities to become stewards of their forests through training and forest-friendly livelihoods. These activities provide tangible benefits — for example, local farmers and herders are rewarded for keeping their livestock out of the forest, helping young trees thrive.
Local communities still rely heavily on forests to provide wood for construction and for fuelwood. In some of our projects, we work with communities to plant fast growing species and woodlots where trees can be harvested to meet their needs. This relieves pressure on the areas of degraded forest we are working to restore.
WeForest is grounded in science, and monitoring is an essential aspect of our work. We establish permanent monitoring plots and visit them annually (in most cases) to gather data on key characteristics such as the rate of survival of planted trees, the abundance of species, and the rate of natural regeneration and tree growth over time, among other indicators. Where social impacts are also critical, we measure socio-economic indicators such as the number of beneficiaries and the number of people expanding their capacity to generate income from forest-friendly livelihood activities. This allows us to track our progress, adapt our management strategy and respond to changing conditions.
Fires are a real threat to forests, and our projects include the development and maintenance of firebreaks as a key mitigation strategy. Fortunately, in the past 15 years, none of our project sites have experienced a fire.
Our projects typically run for around 10 years, after which local communities take full ownership. For carbon-certified projects, our monitoring period extends up to 40 years.
Yes. WeForest projects are periodically audited and certified by independent organisations to ensure transparency and quality. We use recognised standards such as the Preferred by Nature Ecosystem Restoration Standards and, for carbon projects, international standards like Verra. These third-party certifications validate our methods, results, and long-term impact.
WeForest invests the majority of its resources directly into project implementation and support:
Total programme costs: 76%
Country programmes: 67%
Programme technical support: 7%
Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E): 2%
This structure ensures that most of our funding directly supports restoration activities and their long-term impact
In 2025, WeForest employs 110 people, of whom 97 work directly on our programmes.
Country teams (88 staff):
These teams design, implement, monitor, and evaluate projects, engage stakeholders, and manage partnerships at the country level.
Ethiopia: 19 FTE – 3 projects
Zambia: 52 FTE – 5 projects
Malawi: 10 FTE – 1 project
Senegal: 4 FTE – 2 partner-led projects
Tanzania: 2 FTE – 2 partner-led projects
Brazil & Argentina: 1 FTE – 2 partner-led projects
Technical support team (9 staff):
This team provides expertise in biodiversity, socio-economics, agroforestry, certification, monitoring, evaluation, remote sensing, and applied research. They also develop new projects and manage collaborations with scientific partners.This globally distributed team (based in Brazil, Zambia, Brussels, the UK, and France) ensures consistent technical quality, learning, and impact across all WeForest programmes.
What matters is the long-term survival of the trees, so we engage and train local farmers who earn a stable income from the project and make them stewards of their new forest.
In many countries, women are the main users of forest resources, yet they are often excluded from forest management and decision-making. WeForest ensures women are actively involved in project design and implementation, with meetings adapted to their schedules and needs. By supporting activities such as pruning, agroforestry, and income generation (e.g. egg production and sheep rearing), our projects reduce pressure on forests while improving family nutrition and income.
In some of our projects, beekeeping provides a strong incentive to protect forests. The income from honey can double a family’s earnings, while healthy trees are essential for bees to thrive. As we say: no bees, no trees; no honey, no money.
Different tree species capture carbon at different rates, yet focusing only on fast-growing trees is not the best approach. Natural, diverse forests store far more carbon — up to 40 times more than plantations — while also supporting biodiversity and local communities.
Euronews covered the latest Forest Declaration Assessment report that found 8.1 million hectares of forest were permanently lost last year, an area roughly half the size of England. This exceeds the annual rate of forest loss needed to meet 2030 goals by more than three million hectares. The analysis shows the world is 63 percent off target to meet 2030 goals to halt deforestation. The report also notes public subsidies funding forest protection equal just 1.4 percent of public money spent on deforestation related activities.
World off course to meet 2030 deforestation pledge
Besides funding trees, there are many ways you can take climate action:
Carbon neutral means balancing your carbon emissions by reducing and compensating for what remains, often through carbon credits.
Climate neutral covers all greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide, aiming for no net impact on the climate.
Net Zero goes further: it means reducing emissions across the entire value chain and only compensating for what cannot be avoided. It focuses on cutting emissions first, not offsetting them.
Trees help absorb carbon as they grow, yet the best carbon is the one never emitted in the first place.
See which solution is right for you and get started today.
HQ (BE): WeForest asbl/vzw
Cantersteen 47, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
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