Mapping Together: A Guide to Monitoring Forest and Landscape Restoration Using Collect Earth Mapathons

This guide explains how to use Collect Earth mapathons—an open-source tool combining satellite imagery and local knowledge—to monitor tree-based restoration. It details an 8-step implementation process and provides case studies from El Salvador, Ethiopia, India, and Rwanda to illustrate how the tool tracks tree cover and land-use changes against specific restoration targets.

• Collect Earth is an open-source data collection tool that combines high-resolution satellite imagery with local landscape knowledge to track biophysical restoration goals. It allows users to generate precise data on tree growth outside of forests—including urban areas, pasture, and farms—and monitor landscape changes over time.
• Collect Earth mapathons involve local stakeholders and experts as data collectors and interpreters to improve accuracy. This framework helps answer monitoring questions regarding tree count, tree cover, spatial patterns, and land use/land cover changes.
• Case studies demonstrate the application of Collect Earth mapathons across different regions: in El Salvador's Cerron Grande watershed, it identified restoration opportunities by showing that croplands had 0% tree cover and grasslands had 10%; in Ethiopia's Sodo Guragie Woreda, it tracked forest cover increasing from 7.5% in 2010 to 8.1% in 2015 against a 19% target; in India's Sidhi District, it identified areas with less than 40% tree cover for potential on-farm increase; and in Rwanda's Gatsibo District, it found tree cover between 12% and 22%, falling short of a 30% target, with net losses of forest, wetland, grasslands, and shrublands between 2006 and 2014.
• The guide outlines an 8-step process for successfully implementing a Collect Earth mapathon: developing a data use plan and influence strategy, defining the area of interest and survey indicators, designing the survey, designing the sampling scheme, organizing the mapathon, conducting the mapathon, assessing data quality, and analyzing and presenting results.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Mapping Together: A Guide to Monitoring Forest and Landscape Restoration Using Collect Earth Mapathons. https://www.wri.org/research/mapping-together-guide-monitoring-forest-and-landscape-restoration-using-collect-earth

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Mapping Together: A Guide to Monitoring Forest and Landscape Restoration Using Collect Earth Mapathons. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/mapping-together-guide-monitoring-forest-and-landscape-restoration-using-collect-earth.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Mapping Together: A Guide to Monitoring Forest and Landscape Restoration Using Collect Earth Mapathons |url=https://www.wri.org/research/mapping-together-guide-monitoring-forest-and-landscape-restoration-using-collect-earth |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendmapping, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Mapping Together: A Guide to Monitoring Forest and Landscape Restoration Using Collect Earth Mapathons}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/mapping-together-guide-monitoring-forest-and-landscape-restoration-using-collect-earth}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }