Trees outside forests make up a considerable proportion of the tree cover in drylands, but there is currently a lack of efficient and reliable monitoring systems for trees outside forests. Previous research suggests that most forest and landscape restoration is occurring outside of contiguous forests, particularly in agroforestry systems. This implies that trees on fields, in particular those of smallholder farmers, as well as trees in restoration and plantation areas cannot be effectively and rapidly monitored. The ERC project TOFDRY has developed methods and tools that can fulfil these tasks, but the project outputs are not harmonized and not operational. The TREEMAP project aimed at moving research into practical and needed applications that facilitate the use of tree level maps with end-users, such as governmental authorities or NGOs. In summary, we anticipated that TREEMAP will contribute to the accurate assessment of trees in plantation and restoration areas. This will improve national and project based inventories, reporting, and enable accurate calculation of carbon sinks and credits related to tree plantation and landscape restoration, even for small-holder farmers who possess only few on-farm trees. Potential customers are governments, NGOs, restoration practitioners, and companies investing in the planting of trees.
Beyond its methodological contributions, TREEMAP has demonstrated tangible impact through its application in real-world policy and restoration initiatives. Project results have been used in collaboration with regional and international partners to support monitoring of tree-based landscape restoration efforts under AUDA NEPAD’s AFR100 (
https://afr100.org/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) where accurate information on trees outside forests is essential for tracking progress, verifying outcomes, and supporting reporting across diverse agroforestry and restoration contexts in Africa. The specific use for AFR100 was mainly to showcase potentials of TREEMAP, discuss with decision-makers how they could be integrated into their monitoring system, a process which is still ongoing before integration decisions can be made. In collaboration with Planet Labs and AUDA-NEPAD, TREEMAP products have also been applied in pilot sites in Saudi Arabia to support monitoring of large-scale tree planting efforts under the Saudi Green Initiative, which aims to plant 10 billion trees over the coming decades. These use cases illustrate how TREEMAP enables scalable, transparent, and repeatable monitoring of restoration impacts, even in challenging dryland environments. Furthermore, project outcomes have been showcased in high-level decision-making and policy forums, including UNCCD’s COP16, where they contribute to advancing evidence-based discussions on land degradation neutrality, restoration monitoring, and climate mitigation.
