Why we call it Atlas
An atlas is a book of maps that people trust, carry and argue over. Ours is a living one: it keeps being rewritten as satellites pass overhead, registries update, communities map their land and new partners bring data. Its job is simple to say and hard to do: turn scattered evidence into confident decisions for Africa's people and nature.
Most platforms show one of these layers. Atlas holds the whole stack, so the answer on the screen can always be walked back down to the file it came from. That is what makes it trustworthy, and it is what lets it grow from mangroves to almost any place-based question.
Evidence first
We show the data, the method and the limits, in that order.
Honest by design
Measured, calculated and assumed are labelled differently. Missing is said out loud.
Respect for owners and communities
Credit stays with the people who gathered the data; sensitive places stay protected; communities are partners, not subjects.
Open to understand
If you can ask a question, you can use Atlas. No GIS degree needed.
What Atlas is
Atlas is a living nature and climate intelligence platform for Africa. Its flagship is blue carbon, the carbon stored by coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrass meadows and salt marshes, because that is where good evidence is most urgently needed and where Atlas already holds the deepest data. But Atlas is not only a mangrove system. It is a platform for bringing any place-based evidence together, checking it, explaining it and sharing it responsibly. It connects four things that have rarely sat together:
The ecosystem
Satellite maps of mangrove extent for 32 African countries, 1996–2025, plus species, field plots, restoration sites and sea-turtle tracking where they exist.
The carbon market
2,563 carbon-credit projects across 48 African countries, the 572 organisations behind them, their status, credits issued and retired, and 507 verified map locations.
The pressures and protections
Roads, rail, ports, settlements, rivers, parks and land-use layers from WWF Kenya Sources and partners, sorted into clear themes, so you can see what is near mangrove and what could affect it.
The answers
An AI analyst that runs real calculations on Atlas' own database, scenario tools for good and bad futures, 87 explainer articles and printable reports for institutions.
Everything is shown with its source, version, licence status and the exact method used. Atlas is designed so that a minister, a village committee, a donor's analyst and a university researcher can all look at the same evidence and understand it.
Why Atlas exists
Mangroves protect coasts, nurse the fish that feed communities, and lock away carbon, often in far greater amounts per hectare than most land forests. Yet decisions about them are still made with scattered, inconsistent and hard-to-check information.
| The problem today | What it causes | What Atlas does |
|---|---|---|
| Data is scattered. Maps, surveys, project lists and boundaries sit in different portals, formats and units. | Analysts spend weeks assembling what should take minutes; two reports quote different totals for the same coast. | One archive, harmonised units (hectares, metres, ISO dates, one coordinate system) and every original value kept. |
| Claims are hard to verify. A project says it protects 10,000 ha of mangrove; who can check? | Donors and buyers carry risk they cannot see; communities are left out of the picture. | Project locations on the same map as the mangrove, with honest accuracy labels, change over time, and registry details side by side. |
| Change is invisible. Loss and gain happen slowly, across borders and decades. | Problems are noticed late; successes go unrecognised. | Country change since 1996, hot spots, fragmentation and scenario tools that show good and bad futures in hectares and carbon. |
| Expertise is scarce. Many decision-makers do not have a GIS team. | Evidence stays with specialists; decisions rely on guesswork. | A plain-language analyst, a Knowledge Base, and reports anyone can read. |
| Carbon markets need trust. Governments are building national registries; buyers want integrity. | Double counting and weak locations undermine confidence. | A neutral, transparent view of who is doing what, where, with provenance on every record. |
What Atlas holds today
These figures update automatically as data is added.
Mangrove extent and change
- Global Mangrove Watch v4.1 maps for 1996, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020 and 2025 in 32 countries.
- Version 3.0 kept alongside for more data points (for example 2007).
- The authors' official yearly totals back to 1985.
- Net change, rankings, sub-regions, comparisons and trend charts for every mapped country.
Species, plots and restoration
- A 2019 species-formation map of Lamu, Kenya with seven formation classes.
- Field survey plots tested against the map.
- Restoration sites with degradation and natural-regeneration monitoring.
- Sea-turtle satellite tracks.
Themed layers
- 1,278 public datasets and roughly 8,600,000 mapped features.
- 20 themes: mangroves, protected areas, water, roads and rail, people and settlements, wildlife, fire and climate, farming, mining and licences, surveys, land use and boundaries.
- Layers from WWF Kenya Sources and partners across Kenya, Tanzania and beyond.
Carbon projects
- 2,563 projects, 418,108,983 tonnes CO₂e issued, 233,409,680 retired.
- 30 mangrove or blue-carbon projects.
- 572 organisations, with legal-entity records where they exist.
- Status, methodology and vintages, a location accuracy label on every mapped point, and community involvement described for 1,330 projects (read from their own descriptions; where the text does not say, Atlas says so).
Analysis
- Hot spots (Moran's I, Getis-Ord Gi*), fragmentation and patch statistics.
- Distance to roads, villages and development footprints.
- Carbon stock and loss arithmetic with editable assumptions.
- Good-news, bad-news and best/worst-case scenarios to 2050.
Knowledge and tools
- An AI analyst with 232 example questions.
- 87 articles: concepts, methodologies and how-to guides.
- Report builder, change page, scenario lab, provenance explorer and data quality scorecard.
One platform, many ecosystems and uses
Behind the mangrove maps sits a general-purpose evidence platform. Today it already spans 20 themes, 1,278 public datasets and 55 African countries and territories. Items marked planned are not available yet.
Coastal and wetland ecosystems
Mangroves (live), seagrass and salt marsh (planned), coastal forests, restoration sites, sea turtles and wetland layers, with change over time and species detail where it exists.
Climate and carbon
Carbon stock and loss arithmetic, scenarios to 2050, 2,563 carbon projects with credits issued and retired, organisations and community involvement. Forest, farming and rangeland projects are in the register too.
Infrastructure and development pressure
Roads, railways, ports, corridors, power, fences, mining and oil licences, and distance analysis to mangrove and communities, for early screening of any project.
Landscapes, parks and wildlife
Protected areas, conservancies, priority landscapes, land-use and land-cover scenarios, human-wildlife conflict, bird areas and habitats across several African landscapes.
Water and catchments
Rivers, lakes, basins, catchments and irrigation layers that link upstream land use to downstream coasts.
People, livelihoods and communities
Villages, towns, schools, population, farming and fisheries layers today; community projects and beach management units are the next addition (planned).
Field and survey data
Plots, questionnaires and monitoring kits kept with provenance, with sensitive records protected.
Governance and evidence tools
Provenance explorer, data quality scorecard, versioned change log, methods articles, reports and an AI analyst that works across all of it.
What we have, what we are building, what we still need
An honest map of where Atlas stands, and where partners can make the biggest difference.
| Area | Have today | Building next | Still needed (and who can help) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem data | Mangrove extent for 32 countries (1996–2025); species formations for Lamu; field plots; restoration sites; turtle tracks | Seagrass and salt-marsh maps; coastal soil-carbon cores; biomass and canopy height | Authoritative national mangrove inventories and management plans (government agencies, research institutes) |
| Carbon market | 2,563 projects, 572 organisations, status, credits, community tags, 507 verified locations | Project boundaries, monitoring reports, benefit-sharing details, links to national registries | Registry data-sharing (NEMA and other designated authorities), project design documents, community voices (developers, communities) |
| Pressures and land use | Infrastructure, mining licences, land-use scenarios, population and settlements across several landscapes | Regular refresh and change detection; more countries | National land-use, tenure and spatial-plan data (ministries, county governments) |
| Communities | Community-linked layers; community tags on carbon projects | A Community Projects register: community forests, beach management units, locally managed marine areas, conservancies | Community and NGO data, in local languages, with consent and shared benefit (community organisations, NGOs) |
| Intelligence | AI analyst with 232 example questions, scenarios, reports, 87 articles | Alerts for change, saved views, shareable story maps, more analyst skills | Domain reviewers to test answers (researchers, practitioners) |
| Platform | Provenance, quality scores, restricted data, backups with restore, fast archive, security hardening | Data service (API), scheduled updates, off-site backups, e-mail alerts, team seats | Hosting and engineering capacity for national instances; funding for continuity |
| Access and reach | English web platform, mobile-friendly, institutional access review | More languages, low-bandwidth mode, offline field briefs | Translators and training partners |
The full potential
Because Atlas is built as a platform rather than a single map, the same foundation can serve many more purposes. These are the directions we see, each marked by how far along it is.
National and county climate reporting partly available
Baselines, trends and carbon arithmetic for coastal and forest commitments, with methods written out. Next: reporting templates and registry links.
Carbon-market integrity partly available
A neutral view of every project in a territory, matched to mapped ecosystems, with accuracy labels. Next: boundaries, monitoring reports and double-counting checks with national registries.
Nature-positive business and finance planned
Screening of supply chains, loans and investments for proximity to sensitive ecosystems, and support for nature-related disclosure and blue or green bonds.
Spatial planning and the blue economy partly available
Ports, fisheries, tourism and energy planned with ecosystems and communities in view. Today: pressure and proximity screening. Next: zoning layers and trade-off tools.
Restoration tracking partly available
Where restoration is needed, where it is happening and whether it survives. Next: satellite checks and community monitoring.
Community benefit and stewardship planned
Community projects, rights and benefit-sharing mapped so communities can see and share their own story.
Early warning and change alerts planned
Notification when mangrove or forest near you changes, when a new project registers, or when a development is proposed.
Climate risk and adaptation planned
Storm, flood and sea-level layers combined with ecosystems and settlements to show where nature protects people and where it needs protecting.
Biodiversity and conservation finance planned
Species and habitat layers linked to protected areas and funding, so conservation money reaches the right places.
Research and education available
A reproducible archive, documented methods and a Knowledge Base for students and scientists, growing with research partners.
Country instances planned
A national or county edition of Atlas, curated with local data holders and hosted to local requirements.
Data service for institutions planned
An API so other systems can use Atlas evidence, with licences and limits that respect data owners.
How Atlas works
The AI analyst is deliberately modest. It understands a question, runs the relevant calculation and reports the answer with its sources and a label that says whether the result was computed or an illustrative assumption. If Atlas does not hold the data, it says so.
Why you can trust it
Traceable to the source
Click any feature and see the original record, dataset version, import run, publisher and archive checksum.
Honest about uncertainty
Totals that differ from a publisher's own figures are explained. Carbon values are shown as ranges. Locations carry accuracy labels.
Respectful of data owners
Original attribution is kept, licences are shown, and layers that need care are protected. Where terms are being confirmed, we say so and ask users to check with the publisher.
Privacy and security by design
Sensitive layers are restricted to the administrator, exports and PDFs are limited to institutions, activity is logged, and the platform uses modern browser protections.
Independent and resilient
A complete archive with automatic weekly backups means Atlas keeps working and every number can be re-derived.
Documented methods
87 articles explain concepts and exactly how each figure is produced, in plain language.
Who Atlas is for
Governments and agencies
Ministries, environment and forestry agencies, fisheries departments and county governments.
- Baseline and trend for national and county reporting and coastal plans.
- Screening of ports, roads and developments against mangrove before consent.
- A neutral view of carbon projects operating in your territory, for registry and safeguards work.
- Evidence for protection, restoration and community-management decisions.
Donors and funders
Foundations, development partners and climate funds.
- Due diligence: does the project's location match mapped mangrove, and what has happened there?
- Portfolio view across countries, organisations and project types.
- Where evidence is thin and a study or dataset would unlock the most value.
- Monitoring that anyone can check, not a private spreadsheet.
NGOs and community organisations
Conservation groups, cooperatives, beach management units and community forest associations.
- Find where restoration is most needed and most likely to last.
- See what neighbouring communities and projects are doing.
- Make a stronger case to funders with maps and numbers anyone can check.
- Plain-language answers without a GIS team.
Carbon developers, investors and buyers
Project developers, verifiers, brokers and corporate buyers.
- Screen sites against mangrove extent, change, roads, settlements and protected areas.
- Benchmark against registered projects: types, status, credits issued and retired.
- Understand the organisations in the market and the community involvement they describe.
- Price scenarios with transparent, editable assumptions.
Researchers and students
Universities, institutes and independent scientists.
- A harmonised, versioned starting point with raw archives.
- Methods written out, so results can be reproduced and challenged.
- Hot-spot statistics, fragmentation and change series ready to use.
- Open to validation and new datasets from research partners.
Planners, engineers and businesses
Infrastructure developers, consultants, insurers and lenders.
- Early screening of coastal projects against mangrove and communities.
- Distance bands from planned corridors, ports and footprints.
- Evidence for environmental and social risk assessments.
- A common reference for nature-based risk and finance discussions.
Media, educators and the public
Journalists, teachers and curious citizens.
- Verify a claim about mangrove loss or a carbon project in minutes.
- Plain-language articles that explain blue carbon from the start.
- Charts and maps that make local stories concrete.
- A neutral source that shows its working.
What it looks like in practice
A county planner screens a port expansion
The planner opens the map for the county, switches on mangrove extent and the development footprint, and asks the analyst how much mangrove lies within 5 km. Atlas answers in hectares with a chart, then runs a loss scenario and shows the carbon at stake as a range. The result goes into the environmental review with its sources attached.
A donor checks a proposed blue-carbon project
The funder's analyst finds the project on the Carbon Projects page, sees its registry, status and developer, and opens its mapped location. The map shows how close it is to mapped mangrove and how that mangrove has changed since 1996. The location's accuracy label tells her how far to trust the point.
A community cooperative plans restoration
The cooperative asks where mangrove has been lost near its villages, which layers show nearby roads and settlements, and what neighbouring projects are doing. The Knowledge Base explains how to restore by letting water flow back before planting. The cooperative prints nothing: it shares a link to the exact map view.
A ministry prepares a national update
Officers compare their country with its neighbours, read the change series and the official totals side by side, and download institutional data with a ready-made citation. The methods articles document how every figure was produced.
A journalist tests a headline
A story claims a coast lost half its mangrove. The reporter asks the analyst, sees the real net change since 1996 with the caveat that gains and losses can cancel, and quotes the source and date.
Beyond carbon: why mangroves matter to everyone
Blue carbon is the entry point, but healthy mangroves do much more. Atlas is built so these benefits can be planned for and protected, not forgotten.
Protection from storms and waves
Mangrove belts reduce wave energy and shelter shorelines, which matters for villages, roads and ports.
Fisheries and food
Many fish and prawn species spend part of their lives in mangrove creeks. Loss of mangrove can mean loss of catch.
Livelihoods and gender
Fishing, beekeeping, tourism and community stewardship give income to women, youth and families, and carbon projects can share benefits.
Biodiversity
Turtles, birds, crabs and monkeys depend on coastal forests; tagging and survey layers show where.
Climate adaptation and finance
Nature-based solutions can lower risk and support green and blue finance, if the evidence is trusted.
Shared seascapes
Mangroves do not stop at borders. A common evidence base helps neighbouring countries and communities manage shared coasts.
Why it is right to have Atlas
- It saves time and money. Weeks of data gathering become minutes, and the same work is not repeated by every organisation.
- It raises trust. Open provenance and clear limits make claims easier to believe and easier to challenge, which markets and communities both need.
- It levels the field. A small community group sees what a large consultancy sees. Expertise is built into the tool.
- It protects what is fragile. Early screening and change monitoring make loss visible while it can still be stopped.
- It joins the dots. Ecosystem, pressures, projects, organisations and communities appear together, which is how decisions are really made.
- It is Africa-focused and independent. The archive is held locally, built around African coasts, and designed to grow with African data holders.
- It is honest. It labels what is measured, what is assumed and what is missing.
Data sources and licences
| Source | What it provides | Licence or status |
|---|---|---|
| Global Mangrove Watch v3.0 and v4.1 | Mangrove extent maps and yearly country statistics | CC BY 4.0, credit the authors and version |
| Berkeley Voluntary Registry Offsets Database v2026-08 | Carbon-project lists, status, issuances and retirements | CC BY 4.0 |
| Gold Standard registry (public data) | Project details and coordinates | Public registry data, attribution kept |
| Plan Vivo Foundation | Community mangrove projects such as Vanga Blue Forest and Mikoko Pamoja | Public project information |
| WWF Kenya Sources and partners (KMFRI, KFS, project teams) | Local layers: species, restoration, turtles, infrastructure, landscapes and more | Licence terms being confirmed with the publishers; held for scientific and internal use with attribution |
| Natural Earth | Country boundaries | Public domain |
| GLEIF and OpenStreetMap | Legal-entity records for organisations; map background and place names | Open data (CC0 and ODbL respectively) |
The Sources page lists every publisher with its attribution, and each dataset page shows its own.
How to use Atlas
| Level | What you can do |
|---|---|
| Guest preview | Open Atlas without an account for a few minutes to see the maps, datasets and analyst. |
| Free account | Explore every map, dataset, chart, report and article on screen, and use the AI analyst. |
| Institutional administrator | All of the above plus data downloads (CSV and GeoJSON), PDF reports, a larger AI allowance and priority for country requests. Granted after review. |
See what institutional access gives or create an account.
Where Atlas is going
Atlas is built to grow. These are the next steps, not yet available, and we will say so plainly as each one arrives. The longer view is in The full potential.
More blue-carbon ecosystems
Seagrass and salt-marsh maps, and coastal soil-carbon measurements, so the whole blue-carbon picture is in one place.
Community projects and people
Community-led conservation and restoration initiatives, beach management units and community forests, mapped with their organisations.
More countries in depth
Detailed local layers for Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar and West Africa, led by the data holders in each country.
Regular updates
Scheduled checks for new map versions and registry changes, with a visible change log.
Data service (API)
Programmatic access for institutions, with licences and limits that respect data owners.
Reach and access
More languages, lighter pages for low-bandwidth connections and offline briefs for field teams.
Atlas in 2030: what success looks like
An illustration of the future we are building towards, to be shaped with partners. It is a vision, not a forecast.
Partner with Atlas
Atlas is stronger with every organisation that shares data, knowledge or funding. There are many ways to be involved, from a single dataset to a national instance.
Data partners
Share or co-curate a dataset with full attribution and the licence you choose. We handle the archive, harmonisation and display; you keep ownership and a voice in how it is used.
Government and country partners
A national or county instance of Atlas for your data and priorities, support for reporting and safeguards, and training for your teams.
Donors and funders
Sponsor a country, a new dataset (seagrass, salt marsh, soil carbon), a validation study or access for community organisations, with open results.
Research partners
Validate maps, test new methods, supervise student projects and publish together, using a reproducible archive.
Technology partners
Remote-sensing, cloud and geospatial organisations who can improve mapping, speed and reach, under open and respectful terms.
Community and field partners
Community mapping, field plots and local knowledge brought onto the map, in local languages, with benefit to the community.
Business and carbon-market partners
Due-diligence tools, transparent screening and corporate sponsorship that supports open evidence, with no influence over the data.
Media and education partners
Story packs, classroom resources and joint campaigns that make blue carbon understandable.
| You bring | You get | We ask |
|---|---|---|
| Data, knowledge or local reach | Your work on a trusted platform, credited, versioned and protected; analysis and reach you could not build alone | A clear licence, a named contact and a willingness to review how your data is shown |
| Funding or a mandate | Open, checkable outputs; reports and dashboards for your portfolio; recognition | Support for open results and independence of the evidence |
| Skills and technology | A real-world platform to apply and test your methods, with co-authorship where it fits | Documented, reproducible methods |
Start a conversation
Tell us a little about you and what you have in mind. A person reads every message. You can also write to info@twende.green.
Frequently asked questions
Is Atlas only about mangroves?
No. Mangroves and blue carbon are the flagship because that is where the need is most urgent and where Atlas holds the deepest data. The platform already carries 20 themes, including infrastructure, water, protected areas, people and settlements, wildlife, fire and climate, farming, mining licences, surveys and land use, and a register of 2,563 carbon projects that includes forestry, farming and energy projects. Seagrass, salt marsh and community projects are planned next.
What is Atlas?
Atlas is an evidence-first platform for Africa's nature and climate decisions. It brings together maps, datasets, analysis and an AI analyst, starting with blue carbon and the mangroves of Africa. It shows how much mangrove there is, how it has changed since 1996, what lies near it, who is investing in it through carbon markets, and exactly where every number came from. The same platform is built to carry other ecosystems, landscapes and themes.
Who is Atlas for?
Governments and environment agencies, donors and funders, NGOs and community organisations, carbon-project developers and buyers, researchers and students, planners and infrastructure developers, journalists and educators. Each group gets different value from the same trusted evidence base.
Where does the data come from?
Mangrove maps come from Global Mangrove Watch (versions 3.0 and 4.1, CC BY 4.0). Carbon-project records come from the Berkeley Voluntary Registry Offsets Database (CC BY 4.0) with details from the Gold Standard registry and Plan Vivo. Local layers come from WWF Kenya Sources and partners. Every dataset page names its publisher, version, licence status and archive checksum.
Can I trust the numbers?
Atlas is built so you can check them. Each feature links to its original record, dataset version, import run and archive file. Totals are recalculated from the map polygons and compared with the publishers' own figures; differences are explained, not hidden. The AI analyst never invents numbers: it only reports what it calculated from Atlas' own database.
Is Atlas a carbon registry or does it issue carbon credits?
No. Atlas does not verify, register or issue credits and is not carbon accounting, financial or legal advice. It shows registry data compiled by others, maps it, and helps you ask better questions before you rely on a number.
What does it cost?
Anyone can explore Atlas after a short guest preview and a quick registration. Institutional administrators can additionally download data and use a larger AI allowance. Partnerships, country instances and funded work are discussed case by case.
How accurate are the project locations on the map?
Every point says how its location was established: published by the registry, shared by a whole programme, corrected after a coordinate error was found, or a named place checked against the country border. Where a registry gives only the country, the project is counted but never drawn at a guessed spot.
Which countries are covered?
Atlas lists all African countries and holds Global Mangrove Watch maps for 32 of them, with full country workspaces where data exists. Detailed local layers currently centre on Kenya's coast, with Tanzania, Mozambique and others growing.
How can my organisation contribute data or partner?
Use the partnership form on this page or write to info@twende.green. We welcome data partners, country partners, research and technology partners, funders and community organisations.
Is sensitive information protected?
Yes. Layers that could expose personal details or the locations of protected wildlife are archived separately and visible only to the super administrator. They never appear in public maps, downloads or answers from the analyst.
Does Atlas depend on other organisations' systems to work?
No. Atlas keeps its own complete archive of the data with checksums, so it keeps working independently and every figure can be traced and repeated.
Who runs Atlas?
Atlas is powered by The Global NGO Stakeholders Summit and Twende Green Planet.
Who is behind Atlas
Atlas is powered by The Global NGO Stakeholders Summit and Twende Green Planet. Atlas builds on the work of many data publishers and researchers, among them Global Mangrove Watch and its authors, the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, the Gold Standard, Plan Vivo, WWF Kenya Sources and partners, and the open-data community. Their work is credited wherever it appears.