When funders, companies and donors want to give money to an ecological restoration project, they encounter a problem: How to make sure what they are funding is having real impact?
The world urgently needs more investment in nature-based solutions, however those funding it rightly want to know that restoration claims are credible. They need to see where work is happening, what methods are being used, what progress is being made, and what challenges remain. They need trust.
Not-for-profit, NGOs and other groups making the restoration happen also face the same issue, with project data that is often scattered across reports, spreadsheets and internal systems, it’s hard to give precise and useful information to donors.
The core questions are simple, but essential: What was planted? Where? When? And how did it perform over time? To help answer those questions, eleven years ago, WeForest partnered with OpenForests to ensure efficient monitoring and reporting combined with geospatial solutions.
OpenForests help clients design monitoring systems, structure their data, integrate satellite and field information, and communicate impact in a credible way. They do that through consultancy and their platform explorer.land, which is a real-time mapping platform that shows dots, polygons, or live data of restoration efforts on a map. It also connects project boundaries, sites, field updates, thematic layers, timelines, stakeholders, stories, sponsor information, and monitoring data, all in one place. That way funder can access live data about the restoration projects they are funding and be sure that WeForest is making real positive change through our restoration efforts.
Inside explorer.land you can fly over project region’s as in the case shown here of Mount Mulanje, in Malawi
A tool for transparency
WeForest is one of OpenForests’ historical clients, and the collaboration has grown through a close and trusted relationship over many years. From early conversations between the two CEO’s Alexander Watson and Marie-Noëlle Keijzer to today’s impact monitoring work, the partnership has always been grounded in a shared belief: that ecological restoration needs to be visible, credible, and accountable.
What makes WeForest different is the way we use explorer.land as part of a wider transparency and partner engagement system. We connect project landscapes, restoration stories, sponsor communication, and portfolio visibility, allowing anyone to access our work.
Because of this, WeForest has helped shape explorer.land’s evolution. Our needs as an international restoration organization pushed OpenForests to think beyond individual project pages and develop tools that can support complex restoration portfolios.
This collaboration helped move the conversation beyond internal data management toward public-facing, map-based communication making restoration work easier to understand, follow, and trust.
OpenForests gave WeForest a way to be radically transparent. Anyone can visit explorer.land, find a WeForest project, and see what has been planted, where, and how it is growing. You can also see satellite timelines showing changes year by year.
"We are in a crisis of trust, and trust is built through transparency, not only through polished communication."
Impact dashboards can show different layers together
OpenForests is now building something new: an impact dashboard that helps organizations track all their impact holistically, specifically for Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR).
Until now, most restoration data has been scattered across different systems. Teams could see pieces of the picture, but not the full logic of impact. The new dashboard brings everything together: activities, outputs, outcomes, and goals. Organizations can assign measurable indicators to each level and see where progress is real and where assumptions need revisiting.
This matters because restoration is increasingly linked to climate claims, carbon credits, and corporate funding. Without credible evidence, the whole sector risks losing trust.
Where the sector needs to go
Making restoration efforts available to anyone, as WeForest does, should not be exceptional, it should be the norm. Transparency should become the normal way restoration is designed, funded, managed, and communicated.
Restoration data should not be locked away in disconnected spreadsheets, one-off reports, or incompatible systems. Funders, project developers, communities, researchers, and technology providers need shared standards, better data flows, and tools that make evidence accessible without losing scientific credibility.
OpenForests wants to be part of that infrastructure. Their goal is simple: help credible organizations like WeForest show what is actually happening on the ground, acting as the bridge between restoration experts and the funders who want to support them.
Because when restoration is visible, it can be trusted. Only with this trust will we be able to fund more nature-based solutions.
