Their searchable โ€˜Reforestation Directoryโ€™ focuses on transparency: how many of several important criteria are publicly disclosed by an organization? Covering more than 350 projects in 80 countries, the database considers 36 criteria organized into five categories – context, ecological, economic, social and institutional – that experts say are key to success. The more transparent an organisation is about these criteria, the higher their project scores in the database. 

โ€œOur list of criteria was primarily drawn from the Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) approach, widely heralded as the gold standard across the restoration sector,โ€ explains Mongabayโ€™s news release, which includes opinions from WeForest, Ecosia, RBG Kew and Thomas Crowther. โ€œThe FLR approach centers on the people that depend on the forest, aiming to restore ecological functionality while enhancing human wellโ€being, with a strong focus on monitoring and adapting the project to changes over time.โ€