Advances and shortfalls in applying best practices to global tree-growing efforts

As global tree-growing efforts have escalated in the past decade, copious failures and unintended consequences have prompted many reforestation best practices guidelines. The extent to which organizations have integrated these ecological and socioeconomic recommendations, however, remains uncertain. We reviewed websites of 99 intermediary organizations that promote and fund tree-growing projects to determine how well they report following best practices. Nearly half the organizations stated tree or area planting targets, but only 25% had measurable, time-bound objectives. Most organizations discussed the benefits local communities would receive from trees, but only 38% reported measures of these outcomes. Non-profit organizations with greater prior experience converged more closely on best practices, and their level of scientific expertise was positively associated with clearer project selection standards. Although many tree-growing organizations acknowledge the importance of clear goal..., 1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data (see Schubert et al. 2024 and Supporting Information: Extended Methods for more details): Data collection occured Jan-Mar 2023. We identified 99 tree-growing intermediary organizations from recently published studies -- Bosshard et al. (2021) and Martin et al. (2021) -- and by searching Google and online charity platforms. These constituted private sector organizations that: (1) fund tree-growing or forest landscape restoration projects that are implemented by local organizations and landholders in multiple regions (i.e., at least multiple states/provinces within a country) (2) have a web presence with information communicating the organization’s restoration activities to potential funders. We excluded organizations that are primarily funded by government sources that are less dependent on web pages to share information with potential donors, fundraise for other intermediary organizations, or are exclusively service provid..., , # Advances and shortfalls in applying best practices to global tree-growing efforts

## 1. Author Information

A. Corresponding Author Contact Information
Name: Spencer C. Schubert
Institution: University of California Santa Cruz
Email:

B. Corresponding Author Contact Information (secondary contact)
Name: Karen D. Holl
Institution: University of California Santa Cruz
Email:

C. Co-authors
K. E. Battaglia, C. N. Blebea, C. J. P. Seither, and H. L. Wehr

## 2. Date of data collection

2023-Jan-09 to 2023-Mar-21

## 3. Geographic location of data collection

compiled from webpages accessed from Santa Cruz, California, USA

## 4. Information about funding sources:

MacArthur Foundation University of California Endowed Chair (held by KDH)

# SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

## Recommended citation for this dataset

Schubert, Spencer et al. (Forthcoming 2024). Advances and shortfalls in applying best practices to global tree-growing efforts [Dataset]. Dryad.

# DATA & FILE OVERVIEW

## 1...