Spatial data transparency and site selection patterns of privately led tropical reforestation

Non-governmental organizations and businesses, located primarily in developed countries, have funded reforestation efforts across millions of hectares in tropical and subtropical regions. Despite repeated calls to deliver transparency in project locations and outcomes, the extent to which recommendations are being adopted remains unclear. We characterized the spatial data-sharing approaches of 122 international organizations that fund reforestation projects in tropical regions. A third of organizations had no publicly-available polygon data, and few (8%), primarily those using the Verified Carbon Standard, publicized all their project location data. For reforestation projects from 42 organizations with downloadable data, we assembled a geodatabase of 118,866 ha of project sites to investigate: (1) whether the distribution of projects aligns with conditions conducive for reforestation; and (2) how environmental and human factors in and around implementation sites differ across reforestation interventions (silviculture, agroforestry, active restoration, natural regeneration). Silviculture and agroforestry carbon projects tended to be located in more productive (flatter, wetter) sites farther from roads and population centers, whereas non-carbon projects occurred across a wider range of site characteristics. Active restoration carbon projects typically had the lowest pre-project deforestation rates within project areas but were more likely to show rising annual deforestation rates in surrounding landscapes in the five years prior to intervention. Collectively, our study reveals growing engagement of private institutions with transparent data sharing, yet more detailed and geographically robust spatial reporting is urgently needed to facilitate meaningful evaluation of global reforestation initiatives.