- The Global Biodiversity Standard (TGBS) is a certification scheme for forest restoration projects that show positive outcomes for biodiversity.
- Each assessment includes a field visit by experts from regional hubs, who have been trained in TGBS methodology.
- The regional hubs also offer ongoing mentoring to projects, to promote internationally recognized best practices in restoration.
- One year on, TGBS has certified six sites, and 15 regional hubs offer mentoring.
There are around 60,000 known tree species in the world, and they can do amazing things: store carbon, provide people with food and firewood, shelter creatures big and small, and so much more.
In the past two decades, numerous high-profile initiatives have announced ambitious restoration targets for forests. Restoring forests can bring all kinds of benefits and is widely seen as an effective nature-based solution to climate change and biodiversity loss. But planting the wrong trees, or planting them in the wrong places, is, at best, a missed opportunity — and at worst, can even harm biodiversity.
In fact, a 2019 Nature commentary found that almost half the area pledged under the Bonn Challenge, a high-profile initiative to restore 350 million hectares (865 million acres) of degraded forest by 2030, was for plantation-style monocultures, and thus a poor strategy for both carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Meanwhile, half of the land pledged for reforestation under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative was actually on savanna, a landscape not suitable for tree planting, according to a 2024 Science study.
“It started to occur to us that there was potentially a problem here, particularly given the size of the pledges that were being made,” says Paul Smith, secretary-general at U.K.-based charity Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI).
What was needed, Smith and colleagues thought, was some way to promote best practices and recognize projects that got things right. When they looked at existing certification standards, they found that none focused primarily on biodiversity. What’s more, most weren’t affordable for small sites.
The Global Biodiversity Standard (TGBS), a non-profit, was set up to address this gap and officially launched in 2024. TGBS certifies restoration sites that show positive outcomes for biodiversity. It also promotes best practices in restoration through mentoring.
TGBS was developed by BGCI, which hosts the secretariat, along with other partners. One year on, TGBS has certified six sites, while 15 regional hubs are now offering mentoring to projects on five continents.
The certification journey
To qualify for certification under TGBS, projects must demonstrate that there has been a measurable improvement for biodiversity compared to previous conditions.
Each assessment includes an analysis of remote-sensing imagery and field visits to survey biodiversity and meet with stakeholders. This information is used to score sites against eight criteria, including ecosystem integrity, level of protection and stakeholder engagement. The results are reviewed by the TGBS secretariat (currently BGCI) and audited by an independent third party to ensure transparency.
Based on the results, the sites may be awarded standard, advanced or premium certification. TGBS will assess any project that claims to boost biodiversity, from those focused on reforestation to agroforestry projects that include some native tree species.
Key to TGBS’s methodology is the role of regional hubs, usually botanic gardens or other non-profit biodiversity organizations. These hubs carry out the on-site biodiversity and socio-economic surveys. They also offer mentoring, either as part of the certification process or as a standalone service.
Working through these regional hubs has a number of advantages, says David Bartholomew, TGBS project manager. Experts at the regional hubs know the local species as well as the social context, and can also offer ongoing support to projects. Plus cutting down on travel costs and working through non-profits keeps TGBS certification affordable, even for small projects.
“We didn’t want to use a top-down model where we were flying in international consultants. We wanted to provide jobs and opportunities to those smaller, often underrepresented [botanic] gardens in these countries as well,” Bartholomew says. “They really understand the ecosystems … but also, they’re also really good at taxonomic identification, and that’s really quite a unique skill set.”
Assessing restoration in Uganda
Said Mutegeki is a restoration ecologist with Tooro Botanical Gardens in Uganda, one of three hubs in Africa. Involved with TGBS since the beginning, Mutegeki led one of the assessments of the Budongo-Bugoma wildlife corridor restoration project in western Uganda, an initiative of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) and the first project to achieve advanced tier certification under TGBS.
Budongo Central Forest Reserve is home to around 600 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), as well as the Ugandan crested mangabey (Lophocebus albigena ugandae), the black-and-white Angolan colobus (Colobus angolensis), and more than 200 species of birds. But the reserve is under pressure. People from nearby communities have chopped down trees like African mahogany (Khaya spp.) and African teak (Milicia excelsa) for timber, charcoal and firewood, and cleared land to cultivate sugarcane, groundnuts and maize, both within the reserve and the surrounding land. That makes it difficult for wildlife to move between patches of intact forest.
In 2017, the JGI partnered with Internet search engine Ecosia to restore degraded forest within Budongo and a surrounding wildlife corridor. So far, they’ve planted 2.4 million trees.
Mutegeki and his team assessed two specific sites inside the reserve: one plot of 19.5 hectares (48 acres) and another of 37.2 hectares (92 acres). Using rapid biodiversity surveys of plants, birds and dung beetles, the team found the sites were returning to a more natural state. There was a healthy proportion of native plant species, and sightings of forest-dependent birds indicated improved connectivity with other natural areas.
Mutegeki, who said the reserve was initially a “paper park” — protected in theory but not in practice — told Mongabay he was particularly impressed by how the project had managed to combine restoration with socio-economic development. Alongside strengthening protection to cut down encroachment, JGI provided communities with alternative livelihoods by, for example, creating community nurseries so they could sell seedlings for reforestation and agroforestry.
“The same people who were degrading the forest were the same people used to establish the restoration,” Mutegeki says. “They stayed in the forest, planting the trees, enhancing protection, monitoring themselves, with no more logging, no more cutting, but getting the money from selling seeds and also still cultivating legumes like beans.”
The assessment team from Tooro also shared a number of recommendations, including how to increase the number of native species, control invasive species, and more.
“We are not penalizing the practitioner for not planting native species, but we are saying … you can do it this way,” Mutegeki says, adding that this kind of mentoring is a major benefit of TGBS’s methodology.
The assessment team’s recommendations have already led to concrete actions, according to Gerald Tumwine, program manager at JGI Uganda, including improved monitoring protocols for plants, birds and invertebrates; community fire management workshops; and more. He says the assessment process was “extremely valuable,” both in quantifying biodiversity gains and as a learning opportunity.
“It strengthened collaboration among communities, conservation organizations, and government authorities, providing a scalable blueprint for how to genuinely restore biodiversity while strengthening community resilience — a model we are now eager to apply more broadly,” Tumwine tells Mongabay by email.
Benefits for funders and projects
Ecosia is a TGBS technical partner, and much of the initiative’s methodology was tested at Ecosia-funded sites during a pilot phase.
“There’s such a hype around tree planting, it’s really seen as a silver bullet for a lot of environmental concerns, a lot of social concerns. And this is very good news, but unfortunately, there’s very little assurance in the space,” says Antonia Burchard-Levine, network and impact officer with Ecosia. “So, when we got into initial conversations with BGCI about starting the standard, we were like, ‘Ah, this is exactly what we’ve been looking for.’”
Ecosia funds restoration projects in more than 30 countries, including the JGI project in the Budongo-Bugoma wildlife corridor.
For Ecosia and other funders, TGBS certification can act like an audit, giving them assurance that restoration is being carried out properly, Burchard-Levine says. But the real impact comes from the mentoring, she says.
Since TGBS launched, Ecosia has had three of its funded projects assessed: the JGI-led project in Uganda (two sites) and a SICIREC-led project in Bolivia (also two sites) received certification. But the third project, in Madagascar’s Lavasoa-Ambatotsirongorongo Mountains, wasn’t certified. Now, with guidance from the Madagascar hub, the project team has reworked its management plan, Burchard-Levine says.
That kind of guidance and validation is particularly beneficial for organizations that might not have technical expertise in restoration, she says.
“Of course, if [project sites] get certified, great. For me, that’s not really the point.” she says.
Native trees for many purposes
TGBS now plans to scale up. Over the next couple of years, it wants to see each of the 15 existing hubs assess 10 projects, Bartholomew says. It’s also speaking with policymakers to see how TGBS could fit in with their requirements. He also points to synergies between TGBS and other types of certification or assessment programs.
TGBS isn’t designed to be a tradeable unit, credit or offset. But certification under the standard could potentially add value to carbon credits, by demonstrating that a project is also boosting biodiversity and following best practices, Bartholomew says.
“Even if carbon is sequestered at a slower rate, it might then generate a higher price, and also, ultimately, it’s likely to be more resilient,” he says.
Boosting biodiversity and using native tree species in restoration can align with human development goals. More than 14,000 tree species, a quarter of all known tree species, are used by people for food, materials, medicine, fuel or other uses, according to the Global Useful Native Trees (GlobUNT) database, which was developed by CIFOR-ICRAF, a TGBS partner.
At the same time, 38% of tree species are at risk of extinction, according to the first Global Tree Assessment, published in 2024.
“We need to think about carbon, biodiversity, people, livelihoods in one picture,” Bartholomew says. “And I think that’s what we’re trying to do is make this more holistic.”
Banner image: Chimpanzees in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Image courtesy of the Jane Goodall Institute.
Citations:
Lewis, S. L., Wheeler, C. E., Mitchard, E. T., & Koch, A. (2019). Restoring natural forests is the best way to remove atmospheric carbon. Nature, 568(7750), 25-28. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01026-8
Parr, C. L., Te Beest, M., & Stevens, N. (2024). Conflation of reforestation with restoration is widespread. Science, 383(6684), 698-701. doi:10.1126/science.adj0899
Kindt, R., Graudal, L., Lillesø, J. B., Pedercini, F., Smith, P., & Jamnadass, R. (2023). GlobalUsefulNativeTrees, a database documenting 14,014 tree species, supports synergies between biodiversity recovery and local livelihoods in landscape restoration. Scientific Reports, 13(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-023-39552-1
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