“Over the years we’ve invested significantly in our field data team - focusing on producing trusted ratings. While this ensures the accuracy of our Ratings, it doesn’t allow the scale across the thousands of projects that buyers are considering.”
For more information on carbon credit procurement trends, read our "Key Takeaways for 2025" article. We share five, data-backed tips to improve your procurement strategy.
One more thing: Connect to Supply customers also get access to the rest of Sylvera's tools. That means you can easily see project ratings and evaluate an individual project's strengths, procure quality carbon credits, and even monitor project activity (particularly if you’ve invested at the pre-issuance stage.)
Book a free demo of Sylvera to see our platform's procurement and reporting features in action.
Sylvera today announced the Open Carbon Data Project, a first-of-its-kind initiative to generate high-resolution, open-access forest carbon data across the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, Meta, World Resources Institute, Symbiosis Coalition, and leading Brazilian research institutions UESC, the initiative targets one of the most critical barriers - increasing the amount of trusted, scientifically rigorous data to underpin credible measurement, reporting and verification at scale.
"Carbon markets cannot scale without trust, and trust starts with ground truth data. Through our work combining field measurements and advanced remote sensing, we're helping build the biomass data foundation that more accurate, transparent, and scalable carbon markets depend on.” said Allister Furey, CEO, Sylvera.
“High-quality, accessible data is critical infrastructure for scaling nature-based climate finance and ensuring it delivers real benefits to communities on the ground," said Carli Roth, Director of Innovative Finance at The Rockefeller Foundation. "This initiative shows how open, more accurate data can unlock investment, building investor and buyer confidence while helping local stakeholders accelerate equitable access to capital for underserved communities that depend on healthy forests for their lives and livelihoods."
Nature-based climate solutions are attracting growing investment and delivering real climate outcomes. Establishing an open-sourced dataset of ground truth data in complex ecosystems like the Atlantic Forest will enable more sophisticated verification systems - accelerating deployment and reducing costs, which will enable the market to scale. Digital MRV (dMRV) systems offer a path to scalable, lower-cost verification, but they require robust data to model accurately. This initiative is designed to provide that foundation.
The dataset will enable accurate measurement and verification of forest carbon stocks, improving the calibration and validation of satellite-based monitoring models. This will lower the barrier to entry for carbon market participants, particularly smallholder and community-led projects, and will increase confidence in verification results among investors and corporate buyers, helping to scale financial flows into forest restoration and protection.
The data will be released later this year under an open licence, made accessible at no cost to developers, registries, policymakers, and researchers globally.
A core principle of the initiative is that the work is locally anchored and steered by local experts. Through partnerships with Brazilian universities, research institutions, local implementation partners, and government agencies and landowners, the initiative ensures both scientific integrity and equitable participation, building long-term data capacity and institutional trust in the region.
Brazilian / Local Partner Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz
Prof Deborah Faria, Permanent faculty member of the DCB and coordinator of the Laboratory of Ecology Applied to Conservation (LEAC)"The Open Carbon Data Project initiative strengthens global knowledge regarding forests and the carbon cycle. In Bahia, the project will enable more accurate estimates of carbon stocks in Atlantic Forest remnants and cocoa agroforestry systems, generating benefits for rural producers. By bringing together scientists, communities, and landowners, the initiative produces knowledge aligned with local realities and contributes to the region's sustainable development."
Prof Daniel Piotto, Permanent faculty member of the Graduate Program in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation"The partnership with Sylvera will generate robust estimates of carbon stocks in the southern Bahia region, in addition to enabling scientific exchange and training for academics from southern Bahia on the most advanced research methods focused on forest carbon."
World Resources Institute
John Brandt, Data Science Lead
"Open, high-quality datasets are critical to ensuring credibility in the monitoring and management of forests with remote sensing technology. This initiative will strengthen the tools available to policymakers, researchers, and market participants alike."
Meta
Blair Swedeen, Global Head of Net Zero and Sustainability
"Scaling credible carbon markets requires the same foundation as any good science: open, high-quality data that anyone can build on. We've seen firsthand through our AI-powered forest mapping work with WRI how open-source tools can dramatically improve our understanding of forest ecosystems. This initiative will help lower barriers for new and community-led projects to begin receiving carbon financing, and ultimately build the trust that carbon markets need to attract investment at scale.”
Symbiosis Coalition
Julia Strong, Executive Director and Founder
“Nature-based solutions are some of the most important, near term, cost effective climate solutions we have, and the market is maturing faster than many people realize. Establishing high-quality, open datasets to set benchmarks and standards for measurement is key to giving buyers the confidence they need to act and unlock the market at scale."
This dataset builds on Sylvera’s broader work in forest biomass data and is being collected with local partners through a combination of advanced airborne and ground-based measurements, including terrestrial laser scanning, airborne laser scanning and gamma spectrometry, as well as conventional field inventory and soil coring. Field campaigns are underway, with data collection expected to be completed by Q3 2026 and the open dataset targeted for release in Q4 2026.
The dataset will have immediate real-world applications, including improving the accuracy of the Meta and WRI Canopy Height Maps, one of the most widely used open-access forest monitoring tools globally.
