CASE STUDY

How WWF Forests Forward gives corporate sponsors verifiable proof of their restoration impact

How OpenForests helped WWF turn fragmented project data into a single, real-time platform where every corporate funder can see exactly where their money goes and what it achieves.

CLIENT

WWF Forests Forward

SCOPE

Corporate engagement

SOLUTIONS

Sponsor management – API – Map

projects mapped

Corporate sponsors

Countries

THE CLIENT

WWF's global programme connecting business with forest conservation

Forests Forward is WWF’s corporate engagement programme. It partners with companies to drive responsible forest management, restoration and sustainable supply chains, connecting business action to landscape-level conservation for climate, biodiversity and communities.

THE CHALLENGE

Sponsors were funding work they couldn't see

As the programme scaled across landscapes and many actors — communities, implementing NGOs, agencies, corporate sponsors — coordination and transparency broke down. WWF couldn’t easily answer the questions its funders kept asking:

-> Where exactly is my funding going on the ground?

-> What progress has been achieved, in real time?

-> How do we report this without weeks of manual assembly?

Data sat in spreadsheets, static maps and disconnected systems. The task was to create a single source of truth — combining spatial mapping, field data, progress tracking, sponsor attribution and storytelling in one place.

THE SOLUTION

A connected platform for sponsors, field teams and WWF

Dedicated sponsor views

Each corporate sponsor gets a private, branded view: areas supported, milestones reached, and geolocated stories from the exact sites they fund.

A single global dashboard

WWF monitors every sponsor and landscape in real time from one overview — replacing static reports with dynamic, always-current data.

API integration for verified data

A custom API syncs WWF’s internal monitoring systems, so impact metrics and milestones flow automatically — traceable and up to date.

Funding opportunities

The platform helps WWF present new funding opportunities to corporate sponsors in a more visual and structured way.

Instead of sharing opportunities only through slides or PDFs, WWF can show them on a map, add project context, and explain what kind of support is needed. This gives sponsors a clearer starting point to understand where their funding could go and why it matters.

THE RESULTS

Complex forest data, now an intuitive map-based experience

For sponsors

See their contribution in context — how, where and why their funding matters.

For field partners

Update progress directly, improving timeliness and data reliability.

For WWF

A coherent real-time overview across landscapes, less manual reporting.

“Our vision for this map was to tackle the fragmentation of regeneration investment by making existing projects visible and easy to find, to enable collaboration at scale across Europe. Working with OpenForests helped us turn our vision into a practical tool that our business members, our partners, and other stakeholders can use and benefit from. ”

Martina Asquini, Senior Associate, Agriculture & Food and OP2B, WBCSD

BEYOND THE CANOPY

Why forest conservation is becoming a business priority

We were honored to have Tim Cronin, Global Lead of WWF’s Forests Forward programme, on our Beyond the Canopy podcast.

The conversation gave space to the bigger story behind the Forests Forward programme: how responsible sourcing, forest management, and landscape finance can support both business resilience and forest protection.

A MODEL FOR OTHERS

A blueprint for any organisation managing corporate sponsors

Conservation NGOs, restoration portfolios and corporate nature programmes face the same problem WWF did: real projects and real funders, but no shared, verifiable overview. This approach adapts to:

Sponsor Reporting

TNFD / CSRD disclosure

Restoration portfolios

Corporate nature strategy