Despite its importance, many national restoration monitoring frameworks still lack robust systems for tracking management practices at finer scales. Most reporting focuses on broad targets such as tree cover increase or total hectares restored—yet these figures alone don’t tell us whether restoration efforts are truly improving ecosystem function. Without clear data on soil health, vegetation recovery, erosion reduction, or water availability, restoration risks being implemented without understanding its actual effectiveness on the ground.

This Restoration Monitoring Guide addresses that gap. It provides a hands-on, field-ready approach for monitoring restoration outcomes at both plot and watershed levels. Developed for district-level field agents, extension staff, and natural resource management officers, the guide supports locally grounded, scientifically robust monitoring that enhances decision-making, accountability, and adaptive management.

Under the UK PACT funded project ‘Promoting nature-based solutions for land restoration while strengthening the national monitoring technical working group in Kenya’, CIFOR-ICRAF have undertaken practical training sessions with various stakeholders on using the Regreening App, a citizen science data collection initiative that enables farmers, government agents, project officers and implementors to track and provide evidence of restoration practices on the ground by reporting data on key indicators of land restoration.

This knowledge brief seeks to outline uptake of the Regreening Mobile App following two three-day practical workshops attended by a range of multi-disciplinary participants.