Glossary: Monitoring, Reporting, & Verification

There is a lot of terminology that we use within the TerraFund program. Below you will find descriptions and definitions of all the key terms you will see throughout your time as a TerraFund Restoration Champion:

TerraMatch 

The TerraMatch platform (http://www.terramatch.org) is the application and reporting platform for TerraFund. Operated by a team of product developers and customer service personnel at WRI, TerraMatch connects local land restoration champions to capital and technical assistance through a trusted online system that vets their work, supports their growth, and monitors their progress.​ In early 2024, TerraMatch will launch online dashboards, which transparently demonstrate the progress of each project that secures funding through its system. 

TerraFund Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) Framework 

Monitoring  

Monitoring refers to the process of collecting and analyzing data and information to measure progress toward specific goals that the restoration effort aims to achieve. For a portfolio — a cohort of many restoration projects — such as TerraFund, an Indicator Framework is created as an organized way to view data about progress from different sources.  

• The Indicator Framework for TerraFund is called the Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification Framework, and it consist of a collection of indicators and sub-indicators that serve as proxies for various dimensions of restoration impact, encompassing ecological, socioeconomic, and biophysical. An Indicator is a measurable variable used to represent change or the attainment of a goal (e.g., increased tree cover) for TerraFund. An indicator may be a composite of multiple sub-indicators. 
• For example, the indicator “Trees Restored” is a composite indicator compiling 4 sub-indicators: number of trees under restoration reported by projects, number of seedlings or saplings grown in nurseries as reported by projects, number of trees counted through photointerpretation, and percent of tree cover assessed through remote sensing. The reason for composite indicators for trees restored is because the proof of trees restored is represented in a different format at different stages of time. 

Within this framework, the TerraFund portfolio is monitored through data collected and analyzed from different sources at a predetermined frequency described in the Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification Framework. The consistent collection and analysis of data using the same method over time enables stakeholders to track changes—whether positive or negative—for each indicator, thereby monitoring its progress. 

Reporting  

Reporting refers to data collected from Champions through project, nursery, and site reports, which are submitted on the TerraMatch platform in a standardized format every six months. TerraFund’s project managers and portfolio specialists assess the quality of the reported data, and the World Resource Institute aggerates and analyzes the data. During the quality assurance process, TerraFund staff check for errors and follow-up with Champions to ensure that every organization provides answers based on a consistent understanding of the question. 

Verification 

Verification refers to periodically subjecting reported information to some form of review, analysis or independent assessment to establish completeness and reliability. Verification improves accuracy and conformance with established procedures. Verification can take the form of first party (self-review/internal audit), second party (conducted by an interested/affiliated party), or third party (conducted by a completely independent and unaffiliated third party).  

For TerraFund, some form of verification is undertaken for all indicators because our funders expect credibility and trust. We also want to provide our Champions with an extra seal of approval for the quality of their work.  

Commonly Used Terms in TerraFund's MRV Framework

Project Profile  

On TerraMatch, each restoration champion has a project profile for each of their TerraFund projects. This includes narrative information about the project, a summary dashboard of numerical targets and progress toward them, and access to photos and past reports.

Project Report 

On January 31 and July 31 of each year, restoration champions must submit an overview report of their project’s progress. This project report includes narrative questions about the challenges faced and overcome and numerical information about the number of jobs created and people benefitted. As part of the July report, a financial report is included.

Site Profile 

On TerraMatch, each project profile has one or more site profiles associated with it. Each profile represents a single, enclosed restoration area or several restoration areas that share common characteristics, like proximity or target land use. The number of site profiles required for each project will depend on its characteristics, with the designated TerraFund project manager and portfolio specialist determining the correct number for each planting season.

Site Report

Every six months, restoration champions must submit a report for each of their site profiles. A site report includes information on the total number of trees planted on the site, broken down by species, information about any disturbances on that site, such as a fire, and optional narratives and photo uploads. Restoration champions can indicate if they have nothing to report about a site when submitting a report.

Nursery Profile

On TerraMatch, each project profile has one or more nursery profiles associated with it. Each profile represents one nursery that the restoration champion operates as part of its TerraFund project. The number of nursery profiles required for each project will depend on its characteristics, with the designated TerraFund project manager and portfolio specialist determining the correct number for each planting season. Champions do not have to create a nursery profile if they do not operate their own nurseries.

Nursery Report

Every six months, restoration champions must submit a report for each of their nursery profiles. A nursery report contains information about the number of seedlings in the nursery at a given time, broken down by species, along with any written narratives and photos of progress. Restoration champions can indicate if they have nothing to report about a nursery when submitting a report.

Tree

A tree is defined as a woody perennial plant, typically having a single stem or trunk growing to 5 meters or higher, bearing lateral branches at some distance from the ground.

Tree Planted

This is the number of seedlings or saplings planted by a TerraFund project.

Tree Restored

TerraFund’s ultimate metric of success is the number of trees that survive 6 years after the start of the project. TerraFund derives this number of “trees restored” by comparing the reported number of trees planted or naturally regenerated to the number of trees that independent satellite data can verify.

Hectares Under Restoration

Hectares under restoration is the total land area measured in hectares with active restoration intervention, which includes agroforestry, silvopasture, riparian restoration, direct seeding, mangrove restoration, assisted natural regeneration, and reforestation. The land area under restoration does not exclusively mean areas with active tree planting. Some interventions may not have any active planting of trees and focus completely on enabling natural regeneration through improving the growing conditions for trees to thrive on the site or removing chemicals from sustainable production. These land areas would also count as "hectares under restoration."

Target Land Use System

TerraFund for AFR100 requires that restoration champions identify which land use systems they will target through their funded project on their TerraMatch profile.  Note that restoration champions should identify the final land use(s) after the six-year project has concluded. For example, if a project developer is planting trees on farmland in an agroforest but the canopy closes after six years into a natural forest, the correct target land use selection is "natural forest."
The approved options for target land uses are agroforest, open natural ecosystem, natural forest, peatland, riparian area / wetland, silvopasture, urban forest, and woodlot / plantation. Detailed definitions can be found on the Target Land Use and Restoration Practice Definitions help center article.

Restoration Practice

TerraFund restoration champions will also be asked to indicate which restoration practices they intend to use in this project to restore target land use system. Put simply, this is how the tree gets into the ground.
The approved options for restoration practices are tree planting, assisted natural regeneration, and direct seeding. Detailed definitions can be found on the Target Land Use and Restoration Practice Definitions help center article.

Tree Distribution 

This denotes how trees will be spread throughout the site after restoration work has concluded. Trees can cover either an entire restoration area (full coverage), will cover part of the area (partial coverage), or will be planted in single row (single line).

Geospatial Location Data

TerraFund champions must collect highly accurate geospatial location data of each area where it is restoring land with TerraFund. A restoration area refers to each separate, contiguous area where restoration work is being done.  

Depending on the characteristics of the project’s restoration areas, it can be classified as either “concentrated” or “distributed.”  

• A concentrated project has relatively fewer and larger restoration areas. The average size of each restoration area is greater than 3 hectares and there are fewer than 50 total restoration areas.  
• A distributed project has relatively more and smaller restoration areas. The average size of each restoration area is less than 3 hectares and there are more than 50 total restoration areas. 

Each restoration area will be represented by either a GPS point or a polygon for use in TerraMatch, depending on context and, if appropriate, will be grouped into sites. A GPS point is a dimensionless, discrete location on the Earth’s surface, represented by a pair of x, y coordinates.  A polygon is a closed shape that starts and ends at the same coordinate and encloses a geographically contiguous area, saved as a GIS file (like a KML or Esri Shapefile). 

When submitting geospatial location data, champions must submit an attribute table, a piece of nonspatial information describing a specific piece of geospatial data that includes its associated target land use system, restoration practice(s), tree distribution, and dates of planting.

Flority

Restoration champions collect geospatial location data of each restoration area through the Flority App. Once restoration work has begun, preferably on the same day of planting, restoration champions use the app to collect polygons or GPS points representing the locations where trees have been planted.
All collected data will be automatically uploaded to the Greenhouse cloud-based platform where champions can visualize, edit and download collected data. Then, the polygons are taken off Greenhouse, quality assured, and uploaded by the TerraFund team to a champion’s TerraMatch profile.

Job

A “job” is defined as a unique person aged 18 years or older who has received financial compensation for at least one hour during a given week. In this tally are included all full-time and part-time jobs that work directly on a restoration champion’s TerraFund project and that are paid. Volunteers or project beneficiaries that are not paid directly by your organization are not included.

Volunteer

A “volunteer” is an individual that freely dedicates their time to the project but does not receive payment for their work. They must work directly on the project. Paid workers or project beneficiaries that do not provide labor to the project are not included.

Beneficiary

Unlike employees and volunteers, a “beneficiary” does not work on the project, but still receives benefits. These benefits could include seedlings which they can plant on their own farms, training that the project offers, or, over time, indirect benefits such as improved food security or climate resilience as a result of restored land. Paid workers or volunteers are not included.

Financial Report

Restoration champions must submit an annual financial report as part of their July project report. These reports, collected in a standard format, allow TerraFund to track the spending of each organization against its original allocated budget.