Reforestation to mitigate climate change will be a global commitment during the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021–30). Given the unprecedented financial investment required, land managers, policymakers and other stakeholders need the best available data to understand, plan and manage forest restoration (see S. L. Lewis et al. Nature 568, 25–28; 2019). We now have the tools for generating such data.

Satellite time series of Earth observation data provide objective, spatially explicit information on forest recovery over large areas (see J. C. White et al. Remote Sens. Environ. 194, 303–321; 2017). These baseline data on the potential for natural regeneration at a given location can be integrated with data from ground plots, or from airborne laser scanning, to create a framework for characterizing forest recovery trends retrospectively, and for planning restoration efforts (see D. R. A. Almeida et al. Forest Ecol. Manage. 438, 34–43; 2019).