Their searchable ‘Reforestation Directory’ 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. 

“Our list of criteria was primarily drawn from the Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) approach, widely heralded as the gold standard across the restoration sector,” explains Mongabay’s news release, which includes opinions from WeForest, Ecosia, RBG Kew and Thomas Crowther. “The FLR approach centers on the people that depend on the forest, aiming to restore ecological functionality while enhancing human well‐being, with a strong focus on monitoring and adapting the project to changes over time.”