Reforestation comes with huge challenges in Nepal - everything from wildfires at one end of the spectrum to keeping grazing goats and wildlife in check at the other. Afforestation (planting trees where none have previously existed - e.g, in former river beds where there is only gravel and sand rather than soil) takes those challenges to an altogether different level. But, alongside these operational challenges in Nepal there is one that we have to contend with here in the UK; how we demonstrate success and present it to our donors.

It is fairly straightforward to present what we have achieved in terms of the number of saplings planted towards our goal of one million by 2030 in this "Decade of Action" that we have called as our contribution towards saving the planet. But how many of these saplings have survived the ravages of climate, the inadequacies of poor soil and gastronomic attentions of our four-legged friends? A 2021 global review of tree-planting initiatives in the tropics and subtropics since 1961 found that while dozens of organisations reported planting a total of 1.4 billion trees, just 18% mentioned monitoring and only 5% measured survival rates. You would be wise to be cautious of those organisations who are currently grabbing headlines (and precious resources) by boasting of millions of trees planted. Or those that share images of tree seeds being scattered from planes. In our experience, land needs to be prepared properly to receive saplings, fenced off, the saplings watered and wed etc. There's no quick and cheap solution.

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Of course, one way of demonstrating success is by sharing before and after images like this one, taken in November 2022. It shows my colleague in Nepal, Lily Katuwal, with Indian Teak saplings planted at the same time at our Dhanusha Bird Park project (which doubles up as a demonstration site). The one on the left has been planted using a conventional approach with pits prepared in the ground and saplings well spaced out from one another. The sapling on the right is in the adjacent plantation that we have planted using the rapid-reforestation "Miyawaki Method". It looks like there is potentially a quick solution after all, but the Miyawaki approach isn't cheap (even if it is an excellent return on investment). For the ground needs to be excavated to a depth of 1.5m and a thick layer of compost placed before replacing the topsoil and planting saplings close together (nine per square metre).

The picture speaks for itself, but it's not ideal either - let's face it, you've only got my word for where the picture has been taken. It might just as well be my back garden. Moreover, it would be much better if organisational bias could be excluded by getting independent verification and objective measurement that doesn't involve using a field worker as a measuring stick. Such verification is available and is used for confirming carbon credit investments, but these come at a price. I would much rather see precious funds being used for activities that get trees into the ground and provide for their subsequent welfare.

At last there seems to be a solution in the form of Restor, a FREE map-based, open-source platform created so that environmentalists can better plan, manage and monitor restoration projects. The specific locations of over 130,000 restoration and conservation initiatives are now registered on the platform, And, as of this past weekend, these include the projects we are working on in southeast Nepal with our project partners, the NGO Mithila Wildlife Trust (MWT) and the Division Forest Offices. The platform combines high-resolution satellite imagery with data collected on the ground about the ecosystems and their potential for restoration in terms of reforestation, biodiversity and carbon capture. With time, donors will be able to see for themselves the development of vegetation and tree cover as an outcome of their investment. Importantly, it will also display the failures so that we can learn from one another's mistakes, for example, ensuring that the most appropriate (native) trees are planted in restoring a particular location. Already MWT has been meticulously collecting data on tree species they have used and on survival rates, so we look forward to sharing that information through Restor.

You can check out Pipal Tree's current collection of reforestation projects through these links:

• Dhanusha Bird Park
• Baluwa Wildlife Corridor
• Gurkha Memorial Forest

But please note that these sites are "work in progress" and MWT will be populating these with further imagery and field data. Once again, we find ourselves at the forefront of sharing information that will be of value to others who will be undertaking similar projects in Nepal (and elsewhere) in the future.

Restor is the vision of British Professor Tom Crowther of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zürich) whose lab group developed this tool with Google in 2020. Since then, Restor has become an organisation in its own right with its own charitable foundation. It's therefore only appropriate that this inspirational man should have the last word in this blog post!

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