Counting what survives, not what was planted
Planting numbers are easy to report. In Lampung, the programme publishes how many shade trees are still alive two years later.
A planting count says how many seedlings went into the ground. It says nothing about the next two years. For shade trees on a coffee plot, those two years decide whether the canopy exists at all.
So the programme in Lampung reports survival, not planting. Shade and timber species are chosen by the farmer groups themselves, planted on their own plots and counted again later.
A planting count says what went in. A survival count says what stayed.
The number, and its limit
Shade tree survival at 24 months is 68%.
Forest Emission Reference Level
That figure comes from a sample of plots. A full census is not yet complete, and until it is the number stays marked provisional. Publishing a figure that is still being checked is a deliberate choice: farmers, partners and funders see the same number and the same caveat.
