ARR Carbon Monitoring Software, and How to Choose

An afforestation, reforestation and revegetation (ARR) carbon project lives on data for decades. Someone has to find eligible land, map it, measure sample plots as the methodology requires, bring in satellite data for the baseline, and hand a verifier records they can check. No single product does all of that for every project, so most developers build a stack.

This guide sorts the software by the job it does, with who each option fits and where it stops. It's an editorial shortlist for ARR developers, not a ranking.

Disclosure: Restoration Scope publishes this guide and is one of the options below.

Checked October 17, 2026: claims about each tool come from its own website or documentation, linked under each entry. Prices change; confirm them with the provider.

What does an ARR carbon project need from its software?

Your methodology sets the rules, so read what your standard asks for first; our guide to carbon standards for nature projects compares them. In software terms, most ARR projects need six things:

Land and eligibility: parcels, landowners, land cover history and the plantable area, before anything is planted.
Plot inventory in the field: trees per plot with species, diameter and height, recorded offline.
A plot database across years: plot IDs, locations and measurements you can trace at every verification, and permanent plots you can find again. Under Verra's VM0047, monitoring data must be archived electronically until two years after the last crediting period.
Remote sensing: biomass estimates, a dynamic baseline or control plots, depending on the method.
Boundaries in the registry's format: valid polygons that change as the project grows.
Evidence for the verifier: records, photos and calculations someone outside the team can trace.

Which tools fit each part of an ARR project?

Job	Options	Fits	Cost (as published)
Plot inventory	KoboToolbox, ODK	Teams that design their own forms	Kobo free for nonprofits, companies from $25/month; ODK Cloud from $199/month billed annually
Plot inventory with maps	QField, Mergin Maps, ArcGIS Field Maps	Teams with a GIS owner	QFieldCloud free tier, paid from €18 per user/month; Mergin from €15.8 per contributor/month; Esri by user type
Forest inventory design	Open Foris Arena	Inventory specialists	Free, open source
Nursery to planting to plots	Terraware	Developers running their own nurseries	Free, open source
Biomass and baselines	Kanop, Chloris Geospatial, Sylvera, Treeconomy	Projects needing satellite estimates	Not published
Project and credit management	BlueLayer	Developers with portfolios	Not published
A standard with its own platform	Open Forest Protocol	Projects that want one route to credits	Not published
Operations across land, field and monitoring	Restoration Scope	Developers who want it set up with them	Scoped per project

Which field apps record carbon plot inventories?

ODK and KoboToolbox are the usual free starting points for plot and tree forms, offline, with GPS and photos. ODK's Entities help when you revisit the same plots and trees each year; they come with ODK Cloud Professional ($499 a month billed annually) or self-hosting. KoboToolbox is free for nonprofits; companies, which most carbon developers are, pay from $25 a month.

Good fit: a team that can design forms and keep plot IDs stable between visits.
Think twice if: you need to draw and edit plots and strata in the field. ODK supports offline maps and forms linked to mapped features; GIS apps go further.

QField takes QGIS projects into the field. Its forest inventory setup covers fixed and variable-radius plots, nested plots, and per-tree species, diameter, height and photos, with external RTK GPS. Mergin Maps is a similar QGIS-based option. ArcGIS Field Maps suits teams already on ArcGIS; the price depends on user types, and Esri publishes nonprofit rates.

Good fit: teams that design plots and strata in GIS.
Think twice if: nobody owns the GIS project. Forms, layers and sync need a maintainer.

Open Foris Arena, from FAO, designs, collects and analyses forest inventory data, with an offline mobile app. It comes from national forest inventories and is free and open source.

Good fit: a team with inventory expertise that wants the analysis next to the data.
Think twice if: you want something your field coordinators set up alone.

Terraware, from Terraformation, is free and open source. It covers seed banks, nurseries, planting plans and offline monitoring plots, and calculates survival and biomass.

Good fit: developers who run their own nurseries and want plots built in.
Think twice if: your plot design follows your methodology rather than Terraware's.

Which providers estimate carbon from satellite data?

In May 2026 Verra named three vetted data providers for the stocking index behind VM0047's performance benchmark: Sylvera, Kanop and Chloris Geospatial. Using one is optional.

Kanop supports due diligence, project design and monitoring, with 10–30 m layers and confidence intervals, optional recalibration with your field data, and an API. It says it has delivered more than 30 VM0047 dynamic baselines.
Chloris Geospatial offers annual 30 m biomass stock and change data since 2000, and a dynamic baseline product for VM0047 ARR projects.
Sylvera is best known for carbon credit ratings and market data. It also sells biomass data and fieldwork, and it's one of the three vetted providers.
Treeconomy models biomass per hectare at 10 m with uncertainty, combining satellite data with your field and drone data.
CTrees is a nonprofit publishing open land carbon and land-use change data, and it supports ARR feasibility and monitoring.

Pachama: Carbon Direct announced it had acquired Pachama in November 2025, and Carbon Direct now trades as Relae.

None of these publishes prices on its website. Ask each one how it handles uncertainty, whether it can use your plot data, and what you own when the contract ends.

Which platforms manage the project and the credits?

BlueLayer is software for carbon project developers: project management, the credit lifecycle from estimate to retirement, sales, a digital MRV module and integrations with registries and business tools.

Good fit: developers managing a portfolio and its credit pipeline.
Think twice if: your pain is field operations. BlueLayer's site doesn't describe field data collection.

Open Forest Protocol is a digital carbon standard for forest restoration with its own field app, yearly field data, satellite validation and credit issuance.

Good fit: projects that want one route from field data to credits, including small ones.
Think twice if: your buyers expect Verra or Gold Standard credits.

TerraMatch, WRI's restoration funding and monitoring platform, runs programmes such as TerraFund, which now invites selected organizations rather than taking open applications.

Where does Restoration Scope fit?

We build digital infrastructure for nature projects: we connect a team's field data, maps and workflows so they can see their operations and show funders credible evidence. For carbon developers, that means one system from land to field:

Land and eligibility: parcels, land cover and plantable area next to landowner records, moving through a pipeline from first conversation to contract.
Field operations: field teams see the same property maps on their phones, offline, and record surveys, photos and planting areas.
Monitoring over time: plots, trees and maintenance tasks with repeated observations, so the team can trace each number to its records.

Our partners include carbon developers such as Ponterra, where we built a tool to track landowner engagement and data sharing for investors, and Living Carbon, where we built land prospecting with their science and GIS team.

Good fit: a developer whose land, field and monitoring data sits in separate spreadsheets, forms and GIS files, and who wants it joined and set up with them.
Think twice if: you need biomass estimates, a dynamic baseline or credit issuance. We're not a satellite data provider, a registry or a verifier; pair us with the tools above. Boundaries download as GeoJSON or KML, but you'll still assemble the registry's file.
Cost: scoped per project, with no public price list.

How do you choose software for an ARR carbon project?

Start from your methodology. Its monitoring plan decides the plot design, the measurements, the remote sensing and how often you measure. Pick tools that fit it, not the other way round.

Decide what stays in-house. Field data and plot records are yours to keep for decades. Satellite estimates and credit management can be bought as services. Know which data you'd lose if a vendor left.

Test a revisit, not just a survey. Collect a plot, then go back to it with another collector and another phone. Check that the plot ID, location and trees match, and that the change is easy to see.

Ask providers about uncertainty. Carbon estimates come with error, and your standard deducts or limits credits when it's too high. Ask each satellite provider how it reports uncertainty and whether your field plots can reduce it.

Keep boundaries valid as you grow. New planting areas, corrected boundaries and dropped parcels all change the registry file. Keep one source of truth for boundaries and check it before every verification.

Plan the verifier's view. Ask a verifier, or someone who has been through verification, to trace one number from a report back to its plot records. Whatever they can't follow is what your stack is missing.

For field apps in more depth, see our guide to field-data apps. For what VM0047 asks of your field data, see VM0047 field data. For restoration monitoring beyond carbon, see restoration monitoring tools compared. Before a field test, the free GPS accuracy test shows how precise each phone is on site.

Frequently asked questions

What software do ARR carbon project developers use?

Many combine several tools. A field app such as KoboToolbox, ODK, QField or Open Foris Arena records plot inventories; a satellite data provider such as Kanop or Chloris supplies biomass or baseline data; and a project database, spreadsheet or platform holds the plots, measurements and documents a verifier will review.

Which satellite data providers has Verra vetted for VM0047?

In May 2026 Verra named Sylvera, Kanop and Chloris Geospatial as vetted providers of stocking-index data for VM0047's performance benchmark. Using them is optional, and other providers can still be used.

Is there one platform that does ARR monitoring from field to credit?

Not in a way that fits every project. Open Forest Protocol runs its own standard and platform end to end, and BlueLayer manages projects and credits for developers, but many Verra and Gold Standard projects combine a field app, a satellite provider and their own project records, depending on the methodology.

How often does an ARR carbon project have to be monitored?

It depends on the standard. Under Verra's VM0047, most parameters are monitored at least every five years, and Gold Standard asks for verification at least every five years. Many developers measure plots more often to catch problems early.

Can a free field app handle carbon plot inventories?

Yes, for collection. ODK, KoboToolbox, QField and Open Foris Arena can all record trees per plot with species, diameter and height, offline. The work is in keeping plot IDs stable across years, checking the data, and producing what the verifier asks for.

What happened to Pachama?

Carbon Direct announced in November 2025 that it had acquired Pachama, to bring Pachama's forest monitoring technology into its own services. Carbon Direct now trades as Relae.