OSEM is about practical, real-world transparent solutions in the environmental field.
Our primary task is making the world's biggest repository of open-source reforestation data.
This project is run by tree planter heavyweights, so we know reforestation data!
We are just building the web app atm but the thesis is this... if we publish even 5% of reforestation data (who planted what trees, where, and when), would tilt the whole industry towards transparency? Would companies begin to compete on transparency and specifications (like every other product or service) instead of meaningless marketing campaigns? If so, this would have a MASSIVE effect on the quality and productivity of reforestation and potentially the climate, to be frank. We can go bananas making visualizations 📊️ and inquiries on real-world reforestation data, not just satellite images and speculation. There is a market failure due to lack of trust in reforestation and nature based solutions and we are going to fix it by making this data open source. Like a sport, a stock market, research, normal commerse: it all has open source information that improves the market. We will do the same with reforestation, by introducing the high standards of open source.
Join us, there is TONS of work to be done.
YOU or person / org that contributes, is OSEM. Please contribute much-needed reforestation data, or web dev work, and you'll be OSEM🤘🌲 forever we promise. For large disclosures, you can promote your data science or web dev contributions as OSEM. For real big disclosures, we use our sister org - Ground Truth Forest News to write and promote your work as actual news stories 📢️
- Explore the repos and active projects.
- Find, clean, share data: Every row of data makes a difference. See below for data details.
- Join discussions by opening issues or contributing directly to ongoing projects.
- Spread the word: Help grow the movement and encourage others to contribute!
- Reach out: if you're serious about helping and you think you can find some great reforestation data please reach out.
We’re building the first centralized open dataset to track the who, what, where, and when of global tree planting efforts. This dataset is the backbone of our mission, and we can’t do it without your help.
- Who planted the trees (e.g., organization, company, or group).
- What trees were planted (species information is a huge bonus!).
- Where the trees were planted (specific GPS coordinates or location names).
- When the planting happened (specific dates or timeframes).
📋 Example Dataset
Here’s a sample dataset to show you the structure we’re looking for (Google Sheets).
Governments, NGOs, and organizations often publish tree-planting stats. Some places to start:
- Canada Open Data Portal
- Look for government or environmental data portals in any country and search "reforestation"
- If you have raw tree planting data, upload it to the repository!
- Help us clean and preprocess data so it’s ready for analysis.
Love to code? We need developers to:
- Help me with the Transplant App App
- Automate data pipelines (ETL: Extract, Transform, Load).
- Build tools to analyze or visualize the dataset.
- Create applications for distributing and managing this data.
While reforestation is critical in fighting climate change, it also raises a lot of valid questions about validity claims, vague reporting, and other BS. This harms funders, ecosystems, and those of us who work our asses off to plant trees and do other legitimate environmental good.
This project:
- Tracks global reforestation production and shares it as clean, transparent data sets available for everyone, no strings attached.
- Promotes transparency and accountability.
- Elevates the quality of reforestation work worldwide
- is run and managed by actual reforestation: workers, contractors, and software developers.
- Clone the repo and explore active projects.
- Find, share, or clean data: Every row of data makes a difference.
- Join discussions by opening issues or contributing directly to ongoing projects.
- Spread the word: Help grow the movement and encourage others to contribute!
All code in this repository is licensed under the MIT license, making it open and accessible to everyone. However, the name and logo of OSEM🤘🌲 are owned by Ground Truth Data Inc. and may not be used without explicit permission. Please contribute data and goodwill about the project's mission, that's all we ask.
Have questions or ideas? Drop a comment, open an issue, or DM us. Let’s plant a trillion trees for real! 🌲️🌲️🌳️🌳️🌴️