OpenForests

17/06/2026

Tree survival is not impact.

It is one of the most common indicators in restoration reporting. And for good reason. It is measurable. It is visible. It helps teams understand whether planting methods, species selection, or drought response are working.

But the goal was never to plant trees. The goal is to establish a functioning forest. And tree survival alone does not tell us whether an ecosystem is recovering.

It does not mean biodiversity is returning. It does not mean soil health is improving. It does not mean habitat connectivity is increasing or water cycles are being restored. A monoculture plantation can show a high survival rate and still deliver limited ecological recovery.

At the same time, a restoration site can lose part of its planted trees and still be progressing in the right direction, because natural regeneration, competition, succession, drought stress, or species replacement are part of how ecosystems reorganise. And losing individual trees is not the same as losing a forest.

This is why the distinction between outputs, outcomes, and impact matters.
Planting trees is an activity. Tree survival is an output, or an early performance indicator. Changes in vegetation structure, soil condition, biodiversity, water regulation, or habitat quality are outcomes. A recovering, functioning, resilient ecosystem, one that sequesters carbon, supports wildlife, and restores the processes that hold landscapes together, is impact.

The issue is that many monitoring frameworks were designed to capture what is easiest to count, not necessarily what matters most ecologically.
And that is understandable.

Measuring ecosystem recovery is complex. It requires clear goals, relevant indicators, spatial data, field observations, remote sensing, local knowledge, and time.

But for restoration to be credible, we need to move beyond asking only:
“How many trees survived?”

And start asking:
“What is changing in the ecosystem because of this work? What is it doing for the living world around it?”

That’s where the real impact stories begin.

16/06/2026

There are countless corporate commitments to forests. However, these are often not put into practice or do not stand the test of time.

Tim Cronin, who heads up the WWF’s ‘Forest Forward’ programme, made it clear in our latest episode of ‘Beyond the Canopy’: if all the commitments made by companies regarding forests had actually been honoured, there would be no deforestation crisis left to tackle.

This simple observation allows us to reframe the issue and highlight where the problem really lies: not in what companies say, but in the gap between their intentions and their actual impact.

As the foundation for its partnerships with companies, the WWF bases its expectations on four key principles: commitment, action, collaboration and accountability. This requires time-bound targets, accountability mechanisms and people who are prepared to stand firm even when the going gets tough.

A conversation worth having about what corporate accountability in this space actually requires.

Watch the full conversation between host Alexander Watson and Tim Cronin, Global Lead of 's Forest Forward Program, here https://youtu.be/7F4WgbCWz7U

In your view, what is the current state of corporate responsibility regarding forests?

11/06/2026

Nature is the silent backbone of every supply chain.

Beyond the natural resources we can see and measure, it delivers services we rarely think about: filtering the water we drink, renewing the air we breathe. Quietly, consistently, and for free.

Most companies never put a price on any of this. Their financial statements treat nature as inexhaustible and infinite.

But what if nature finally sent us an invoice?

In the latest episode of the Beyond the Canopy podcast, host Alexander Watson is joined by Tim Cronin, Global Lead of WWF's Forest Forward Program, for a conversation on why protecting forests is good for business.

They explore how leading companies like IKEA, SIG, Interholco and others are weaving forest conservation into their core strategies, and break down what supply chain resilience, tightening regulations and emerging carbon markets mean for the future of corporate sustainability.

And you, does your balance sheet already reflect the value of nature?

Listen to our last episode here: https://youtu.be/7F4WgbCWz7U

10/06/2026

Nine new GIS thematic layers are now live on explorer.land.

Sourced from leading research organisations. All freely accessible in one place.

Swipe to explore what each one reveals 👉

Conservation ClimateAction OpenData NatureData Biodiversity

02/06/2026

Big news 🌍✨

Our map is featured in the Annual Report, and we couldn't be more proud.

Wyss Academy for Nature is a Swiss foundation and a leading voice for solutions that help both nature and people, working where science, policy, and practice meet. Being part of how they tell their story means that our work helps demonstrate, track, and raise awareness of the real changes on the land and in nature.

We built explorer.land exactly with this purpose: to make geodata transparent and accessible to everyone and not only to experts.

More to come as we work together to further strengthen their ability to drive impact.🗺️

01/06/2026

"The global standards don't have their feet on the ground. They don't stand on the soil."

And this is exactly why Pati Ruiz Corzo and Ecologico Sierra Gorda built their own local carbon standard.

Not for the markets, but for local people.

The Carbono Biodiverso protocol, co-developed with the Querétaro state government, is turning carbon tax revenues from local companies into direct payments to forest owners.

A transparent, locally governed mechanism where 70 to 80% of revenues flow directly back to conservation on the ground.

No developer extracting value in the middle and a system designed to work for the 630 communities living inside one of Mexico's most biodiverse regions.

What makes it work is 40 years of showing up: training farmers, developing local products, and instilling pride in communities for what they preserve.

Economic dignity, environmental awareness, and community pride viewed as a single, integrated whole.

At OpenForests, working alongside Grupo Ecológico to build their carbon registry has been a reminder that local roots are not a constraint in conservation finance. They are the building blocks of the entire architecture.

🎙️ Pati and Laura Burke Pérez-Arce tell the full story in the latest episode of Beyond the Canopy. Link in comments.

29/05/2026

We don't believe in "divide and conquer."

We believe fragmented information leads to fragmented action, and that the restoration sector deserves better than scattered data and missed opportunities of collaboration.

So when and came to us with this very challenge, we got to work. The result: an interactive map of 160+ regeneration and restoration initiatives across Europe, structured, filterable, and built to support decision-making.

We turned the whole process into a case study because we do think this kind of approach is worth replicating.

See how we did it ↓

27/05/2026

"Sean rebeldes."

Be rebellious. That's Pati's answer when asked what it took to keep the Sierra Gorda Reserve going for forty years and how she sees the future.

No toxic positivity here. Pati speaks from experience.

Rebellion, courage, and a deep reconnection with nature as the actual tools for turning what seemed impossible into reality.

In the latest episode of Beyond the Canopy, Marta "Pati" Ruiz Corzo, founder of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, and Laura P. Burke Pérez-Arce, president and carbon finance architect of GESG, joined host Alexander Watson to discuss the challenges, the struggles, the brave stances, and the great achievements of forty years of conservation in Mexico.

They also emphasize the importance of the local dimension: a sense of attachment to and love for the territory, commitment to and by local communities, standards tailored to local realities, and economic and social benefits that stay where they belong: locally.

Because the most radical act in conservation today might simply be knowing your land, trusting your people, and taking care of them with love.

🎙️ Listen to the latest episode of Beyond the Canopy:
https://youtu.be/BazqVRQvH6M
🎧You can listen to the FULL EPISODE right here:
- https://youtu.be/BazqVRQvH6M
- https://open.spotify.com/episode/54e0UNNqHTA7tpgYwrvTXw?si=6ba2e9abcfde489e
- https://podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/40-years-protecting-mexicos-sierra-gorda-grupo-ecol%C3%B3gico/id1508026153?i=1000767283538

14/05/2026

Satellite images are made of pixels.

Tiny pieces of information, collected across space and time that represent real bits of the Earth: a forest, a river, a field, a beach.

Put together, these images don’t only reveal landscapes, but also reveals the changes affecting them:

🌱 growth
🔥 disturbance
💧 drought
🌳 regeneration

This is Episode 4 of “What the satellite sees”, our series about how satellites help us understand the constantly evolving nature.

👉 Swipe to explore
👉 Follow for the next episode

07/05/2026