Are specific goals set by you or does each organisation set its own goals and handle its own reporting?

We do not set goals for our partner organisations, we set goals for ourselves to try to gather as much funding as we can to channel to the projects, and the projects set their own goals based on their knowledge of the local needs and their capacity for tree planting.

But also, the goals go far beyond the number of trees planted. Every project is special. Projects are the fruits of either a community that has a vision behind the trees, or they have been developed by a local NGO or association in the region (e.g. The Ashaninka project in the Brazilian Amazon), or by a foreign NGO who has tried to address the drivers of deforestation through listening to the communities (e.g. Health in Harmony and its local sister organisation called ASRI in Indonesia). They know why they are planting trees or assisting the regeneration of forests, as there is often an overarching goal behind it, like enhancing soils, increasing biodiversity, or replenishing the water table, or livelihood purposes.

Regarding the tree goals, our reforestation partners have been reforesting for at least 5 years, they know the potential for reforestation in their project area and the number of trees they can plant in a year. They know what’s needed to increase their capacity and the limit of their reforestation rate, and so they determine their goals and then these are set out in the agreement with TreeSisters.The partners are then fully responsible for managing their own reporting towards these agreed goals. 

 We are accountable to our donors by following the projects.