Reforestation is increasingly promoted as a way to address climate change, biodiversity loss and other environmental challenges. But with a growing number of organizations funding and supporting tree-planting projects around the world, understanding how those organizations operate, and whether they follow ecological, social and financial best practices and standards, can be difficult.
Through our Data Studio, storytelling and collaboration with researchers, Mongabay has contributed to efforts to increase transparency and access to information in the rapidly expanding reforestation field.
In 2024, Mongabay first reported on a research project from the University of California-Santa Cruz examining the practices of intermediary reforestation organizations. Mongabay also published a call inviting organizations, which finance or support tree-growing projects across multiple regions, often through local partners, to participate in the researchers’ study.
Since then, Mongabay has collaborated with the researchers to develop the Global Reforestation Organization Directory, a public resource that provides information about the characteristics, practices and transparency of intermediary reforestation organizations.
The directory is intended to help donors, practitioners and others assess organizations and encourage stronger practices across the sector. Mongabay later reported on the launch of the directory and how it can help people navigate the complex world of global reforestation.
In early August 2026, the researchers published their findings in a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Environmental Management. The team invited more than 120 intermediary reforestation organizations to participate in a survey assessing commitments to project permanence, social and ecological safeguards, and financial transparency. Fifty-five percent responded directly, while researchers assessed the remaining organizations through systematic reviews of publicly available information.
The results revealed both encouraging practices and important transparency gaps. For example, 87% of organizations claimed requirements for monitoring outcomes beyond the first year of a project, but only 55% required that the funding source for ongoing maintenance and monitoring be specified in budgets. The researchers concluded that greater transparency and verification of social and biodiversity outcomes are still needed.
Impact
The published study acknowledged Mongabay’s contribution to the research. Its authors thanked Mongabay for announcing the call for reforestation organizations to participate and noted that the manuscript benefited from suggestions from Willie Shubert, Mongabay’s vice president of programs and executive editor, and Marina Martinez, a researcher with Mongabay’s Solutions Desk.
Mongabay not only reports on emerging conservation challenges and solutions; its reach and public-interest resources can also help connect researchers with relevant organizations and make new environmental knowledge more accessible. By helping publicize the researchers’ call for participants and collaborating on a directory that makes organizational practices easier to assess, Mongabay supported a broader effort to improve transparency and informed decision-making in global reforestation.
Support independent environmental journalism
If you are interested in helping Mongabay continue to contribute to research and transparency initiatives such as this, there are two excellent ways you can do so with Mongabay. First, consider making a donation, which directly helps us continue to produce high-impact journalism from nature’s frontline. Second, subscribe to Mongabay’s newsletter to get the latest environmental news delivered right to your inbox, and share whatever articles move you with friends and family.
About Mongabay
Mongabay is a nonprofit environmental science and conservation news platform focused on providing original, reliable, and independent journalism from nature’s frontline. We pride ourselves on producing reporting that has substantial and tangible impacts around the world.
Banner image: Women planting seedlings in one of the oldest remaining dry afromontane forests in Ethiopia. Photo courtesy of DVCorstanje / WeForest.