This report gives an overview of the process of establishing the NHSL as a multistakeholder platform. This platform uses research to inform on the role of trees and forests in the landscape for the provision of ecosystem services. Here we describe: (i) the NHSL; (ii) land uses and main characteristics of the four study blocks laid out along the forest transition; (iii) biophysical and socioeconomic results of the baseline studies conducted in 2012–2014; and (iv) a synthesis of the master's theses conducted by the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) students in the Sentinel Landscape until the year 2017.