Submitting High-Quality Photos on TerraMatch

Photos are one of the most important project management and monitoring tools to evaluate the progress and success of TerraFund’s restoration projects. They help understand what’s happening on the ground, track changes in the status of plant growth, community engagement, and other project activities, as well as report disturbances to project areas and innovative practices.

This document summarizes the use cases of photos to help restoration champions, project managers, portfolio specialists and the entire TerraFund team understand what types of photos are requested from a restoration champion and how they are used to inform project progress.

What information needs to be submitted to each type of photo

Private vs. public photos

When submitting a photo on TerraMatch, a Restoration Champion can mark it “public” or “private.” Public photos are free for the TerraFund team to use in public communications and will be credited. Photos marked as private will not be shared outside of the TerraFund team.

Photo crediting

Photo credits must accompany any photos uploaded to TerraMatch.

• Where the photographer should be credited: [Name of Photographer/Name of Organization]
• Where the photographer should be not credited: [Name of Organization]

Photo Captioning

Photos must also be accompanied by a brief caption that describes what is occurring in the photo. It is recommended that the short narrative description includes the name of the people represented in the photo and what they are doing.

Consent and Permissions

In their contracts, champions agree to obtain any necessary permissions or consents for photographing people, private property, or sensitive areas and must respect any privacy concerns. This is to avoid any future grievance if an image is used anywhere.

Any liabilities associated with the upload of an image taken without consent remain the responsibility of the champion, not TerraFund.

When TerraFund contracts professional photographers to visit a project site, TerraFund will provide the champion with a free and unlimited license to use those photos for any use.

What type of photos do we collect for project management purposes?

Champions should upload a minimum of 20 and maximum of 100 high-quality photos during each TerraMatch reporting cycle. They should take at minimum of 5 photos per type outlined in Section 3 below.

Champions are also encouraged to share pictures of their progress via our different platforms, including WhatsApp. However, any photos uploaded outside of TerraMatch will not be considered official representations of the project’s progress.

Champions should submit the following types of photos:

• Nursery Progress Photos:
  • What are they and what do we use them for?
    • These photos inform project managers and portfolio specialists about nursery establishment, seedling development, and the physical appearance (morphology) of seedlings.
    • A nursery picture can show an innovation within the nursery, like a new management practice, or a challenge, like disease and disaster.
  • When and where are they collected?
    • Geotagged nursery photos should be submitted in each relevant nursery report on TerraMatch, as long as the nursery is actively supplying seedlings to the TerraFund project.
    • If a project is not operating a nursery itself, it can optionally submit photos of seedling delivery in their project report.
    • Project managers provide feedback on nursery photos, if relevant, during the report quality assurance process.
  • Examples of Nursery Photos:        

       Photo1:REDO showing nursery layout and band labeling    Photo:   APEFA showing grafting techniques

• Planting Photos:     
  • What are they and what do we use them for?
    • These photos demonstrate tree planting activities, informing project managers and portfolio specialists about the quality of the work and of planted seedlings and providing insight into who is doing the work (community members, man, woman, adult, youth, child, etc.).
    • These photos are important to collect for public communication as well, as they are the most readily understandable photos of restoration progress.

• • When and where are they collected?
    • Planting photos should be submitted in each relevant site report on TerraMatch. Additional photos can be added to the project report as well.
    • Project managers provide feedback on planting photos, if relevant, during the report quality assurance process.
  • Examples of excellent photos

Photos1: RESCONI Tree Planting Activity;  Photo2:OSEPCCA Launch         Photo3: Friends of The Earth Mangrove Tree                                 

• Monitoring and Maintenance Photos:
  • What are they and what do we use them for?
    • These photos help project managers and portfolio specialists assess whether a project is adequately maintaining and monitoring tree survival.
    • Taking photos when people are weeding, pruning, thinning, invasive species removal, erosion control, treating a disease, etc. ensures that TerraFund projects achieve lasting impact.
  • When and where are they collected?
    • Monitoring photos should be submitted in each relevant site report on TerraMatch during a reporting period where active monitoring and maintenance work occurred. Additional photos can be added to the project report as well.
    • Project managers provide feedback on monitoring photos, if relevant, during the report quality assurance process. If there is a delivery issue, the project manager may notify the data quality analyst for their awareness.
  • Examples of excellent photos:

Photo showing a tree seedling after weeding.

• Assisted Natural Restoration (ANR) Site Photos:
  • What are they and what do we use them for?
    • It is important to see the status of a site where ANR is proposed before, during and after the ANR practices have been applied.
    • The photos should capture clearly all of the non-planting practices on the site and should, in successive reporting cycles, show the change in the landscape.
    • Before restoration begins on a site, pictures can should the initial state of the land and presence of natural plants. During the intervention period, they should show the details of the work. And after the intervention is complete, they should show ecosystem recovery.
  • When and where are they collected?
    • ANR photos should be submitted in each report for each TerraMatch site where ANR is planned or has occurred. Additional photos can be added to the project report as well.
    • Project managers provide feedback on ANR photos, if relevant, during the report quality assurance process. Given TerraFund’s innovation on ANR monitoring, the project manager may notify the data quality analyst for their awareness.
  • Examples of excellent photos:

Photo1:BIOCOOR-Invasive Plant Removal                                Photo2:JustDiggit-Tree Growth Assistance

• Community Engagement Photos:
  • What are they and what do we use them for?
    • Documenting interactions with local communities, volunteers, and stakeholders involved in the project helps project managers and portfolio specialists understand how a project is embracing the collaborative nature of landscape restoration. They help the team know how TerraFund projects are involving communities in restoration activities, including volunteer workdays, training workshops, community meetings, local authority participation, etc. These photos show the level of community participation and support for the project and the impact on local stakeholders.
    • They can be also valuable for fundraising, feedback to the donors and public outreach efforts.
  • When and where are they collected?
    • Community engagement photos should be submitted in each project report on TerraMatch.
    • Project managers provide feedback on project management photos, if relevant, during the report quality assurance process.
  • Examples of excellent photos:

  Photo1: Training Workshops                                                                Photo2:  Project Launch

Project managers, at their discretion, should advise champions to collect the following types of photos, in alignment with the guidelines above. This feedback is provided during report quality assurance and live meetings:

• Before and After Photos: The provide a clear visual comparison of the landscape before restoration activities began and after they have been completed. They are invaluable for demonstrating the impact of the project.
• Site Overview Photos: Wide-angle shots capturing the entire project area are essential for providing context and understanding the scale of the restoration efforts.
• Close-Up Shots: Detailed close-up photos are useful for documenting specific features, such as erosion sites, invasive species, or areas of interest.
• Progression Photos: Regularly capturing photos throughout the restoration process allows for tracking progress over time. This can help identify trends, challenges, and successes as the project evolves.
• Aerial Photos: Drone or aerial photos offer a unique perspective and can provide comprehensive coverage of large project areas. They are especially useful for monitoring changes in vegetation cover, land use, and erosion patterns.
• Monitoring Point Photos: Photographs taken from established monitoring points help maintain consistency in data collection and allow for accurate comparisons over time.
• Detail Shots: Focusing on specific elements such as newly planted trees, native plant species, or erosion control structures helps showcase the finer details of the restoration work
• Documentation Photos: Capturing images of equipment, tools, materials, and personnel involved in the project provides important contextual information for record-keeping and reporting purposes.
• Weather and Seasonal Variation Photos: Recording photos under different weather conditions and during various seasons helps assess how environmental factors influence the success of restoration efforts.
• Disturbance photos: In the case of a human or natural disturbance occurring on the project planting or nursery site, photos (or videos where necessary) should be captured to document the disturbance.
• Biodiversity observed: These document animals or wildlife observed on restoration sites. The presence of wildlife on restoration sites are indicative of the recovery of the degraded habitats of these organisms.

What makes a photo “high quality”?

The following guidelines outline the qualities that photos submitted on TerraMatch should possess.

Ensuring these standards are met will help organizations effectively showcase their work and progress:

• High Quality: Images should be clear, well-lit, and in focus. This allows for easy identification of details and assessment of the restoration work. Avoid images that dramatize the situation or use Photoshop techniques to make an environment look unrealistic. Collect at least two photos per scene to select the best shot of that scene at the end of the day.
• Relevance: Photos should capture relevant aspects of the restoration project, such as before-and-after work or intervention, progress updates, or specific areas of concern (where restoration work has been conducted but no success is being achieved).
• Consistency: If a champion takes a picture at a point, they should take pictures at that point consistently over time, allowing for tracking of progress and changes throughout the restoration process.
• Resolution: Photos should have a sufficient resolution to retain detail when zoomed in or viewed at larger sizes.
• Date and Location Information (where relevant): Date and geolocation help track the progress and comparison between the six-month picture in one place to a one-year picture of that same place and understand the progress. For high-quality photos focused on showing a project’s impact, geotagging is optional.
• Gender & Social Equity: In photos that include more than one person, try to reflect gender balance.
• Context/Brief Description: Submitted photos should be thoroughly explained in the accompanying report to situate them in their proper context.
  • While this functionality is under development, champions will be able to caption photos in future iterations of TerraMatch.