Funding mechanisms
New ways to pay the people protecting nature, like Certs, retroactive funding, and conservation data income.
AI and data tools built with local communities
GainForest is a Swiss non-profit. With Indigenous and local communities, we research new ways to fund the people protecting nature, fill the biodiversity data gap, build equitable AI, and scale field tools like bioacoustics.
- Tax-exempt non-profit since 2022
- 1,034+ communities on the Globe
- XPRIZE Rainforest winner
Community feedLiveLive activity from gainforest.app/feed: sightings, projects, and posts shared by the community. Refreshed every 15 minutes.
Sighting10 hours ago
Screw Pine
Adelia Ayura
Sighting10 hours ago
Tropical almond
Adelia Ayura
Sighting24 hours ago
Lucky bamboo
Jhemily · Manaus, Amazonas, BrazilBrazil
Sighting24 hours ago
False eranthemum
Jhemily · Manaus, Amazonas, BrazilBrazil
Sighting24 hours ago
Dayflower
Samuel Munduruku · Manaus, Amazonas, BrasilBrazil
Sighting24 hours ago
Spider wasp
Samuel Munduruku · Manaus, Amazonas, BrasilBrazil
Fresh from the communityOpen the feed
Research
What we research
Four areas, each started in the field with community partners. The results ship as open tools, data, and papers.
The biodiversity data gap
Only 1% of biodiversity data comes from the largest rainforests. Community scientists, drones, and satellites fill the gap, and the data stays in a commons communities own.
Equitable AI
AI built with communities, in their own languages, on data they govern. Taina, co-designed in Greater Manaus, came first.
Field tools that scale
Robust, evidence-based tools for collecting data in the field, starting with bioacoustic models that identify species by sound.
Indigenous AI Assistant
Meet Taina, our community AI.
Taina guides local and Indigenous communities through storytelling on how to archive and share knowledge. The data she collects is self-hosted or governed through a community-elected GainForest Data Council; never extracted.
Co-designed with Indigenous scientists from Greater Manaus; part of GainForest's Nature Guild collaboration.
Open data commons
The world's first community-owned data commons for biodiversity.
Only 1% of global biodiversity data comes from the world's largest rainforests. We're changing this by turning local communities into Indigenous scientists; and helping organisations build equitable data products that can preserve nature.
Data is Soil
Our commons is a living practice.
The GainForest Indigenous and Local Data Council frames data less like oil to be extracted and more like soil to be cultivated: tended with consent, attribution, correction paths, and the right to remain unmodeled.
Read the playbook
Research
We research and innovate together.
Based on community-collected high-quality data, our non-profit runs research programs and hackathons, including the AI+Environment EcoHackathon with ETH AI Center: 136 participants, 20 teams, and three weeks of AI and data visualisation for Amazon conservation.
How it works
Most climate finance never reaches the grassroots. We build the tools with communities, then move the money to them.
Read the docs- 1.
Communities record
Local stewards log species, sounds, drone images, and field notes with GainForest apps and AI. The data stays theirs.
- 2.
They publish a Cert
A Cert bundles that evidence into one public record, signed by the community that did the work. Partners like Ma Earth and Hypercerts can read it too.
- 3.
Supporters find them
Donors and foundations browse community projects on the Globe and in the project directory.
- 4.
Funding reaches the field
GainForest routes grants and donations to the communities doing the work.
Choose how you want to use GainForest
01 · Explore the mapLiveProject pins streamed in real time from ATProto via the GainForest indexer.
What's the Globe?
Discover projects and ecosystems across the world. Explore, learn, and get inspired.
1034+ projects
02 · Meet the certificateLiveThe three most recent Certs, fetched live from the GainForest indexer.
What's a Cert?
A public record of conservation work, published by the community that did it. Each Cert bundles photos, audio, and field notes, and the community signs it so anyone can trace where it came from.
Signed
Community-Led Red Panda Habitat Restoration
Working with local communities to restore degraded forests through native tree planting, biodiversity monitoring, and long-term stewardship, creating healthier habitats for red pandas and other native species.
Signed by the communitySigned
Help Save the Sumatran Orangutan: Restore Abundance for People & Orangutan
Help Transform Palm Oil Plantations into Food-Producing Rainforests to Save the Sumatran Orangutan
Signed by the communitySigned
Planting a Food Forest to Protect a Village's Water
La Ferme du Cerf Bleu is an 18th-century farm on 8 hectares in the Sanvigne valley near Étivey, in the Yonne, Burgundy. Our land lies within the close protection zone (périmètre de protection rapproché) of the town's drinking water source. What we plant here, and what we keep off this soil, reach...
Signed by the community
Nature Guild
We listen to our Nature Guild.
Learning together and shaping new ways to govern nature stewardship; the Guild is a rotating circle of community scientists, ecologists, and field leads who steer GainForest's research priorities.
Stephen Bright Sakwa
Bees & Trees, Uganda
Jaya Kandir
Darukaa Earth, India
Esayu Daniel
YLEC, Uganda
Njambi Njoroge
Grassroots Economics, Kenya
Simon Peter Okoth
Climatica Foundation, Uganda
Marina Mura
Inhaã-bé, Brazil
Nurfatin Hamzah
GainForest, Malaysia
Tin Dalida
WOVOKA, the Philippines
Partners
Working with nature stewards globally.
Our non-profit collaborates with grassroots cooperatives, Indigenous councils, ecological labs, and protected-area managers across four continents.
4nature partners worldwide
Monthly community callsHear the stewards behind the pins.Watch recent GainForest sessions where communities share field updates, restoration lessons, and open tools.Community TelegramJoin the community in real time.Stewards, scientists, and supporters share field updates and ask questions in the GainForest Telegram group.
Live from the Globe
4 names
Impact report
Read our 3rd annual impact report.
The 24/25 report unpacks our global mission, the year's grants, community-led research highlights, and the financials; audited and open.
Selected media
Awards & press.
Sep 23, 202601 · BlogBack in Manaus: field notes and forest sounds
By Diego Rivera
GainForest Blog
Jun 26, 202602 · BlogWhat a community taught an AI about itself: Conservation Technology with Arte & Escola na Floresta
By Nurfatin Hamzah, Diego Rivera, David Dao & Arte & Escola na Floresta
GainForest Blog
Jun 9, 202603 · BlogWhat we learned by listening: deploying conservation AI in the Amazon
By Nurfatin Hamzah, Diego Rivera, David Dao, Samuel Munduruku and Eduardo Santos Silva
GainForest Blog
May 14, 202604 · LaunchSimocracy launches with AI digital twins allocating a community treasury
A mini-documentary follows the Frontier Tower experiment with GainForest, Hypercerts, Funding the Commons, and community sims deliberating over shared funding.
Funding the Commons
May 4, 202605 · FeatureAfter The Algorithm exhibits Tainá with GainForest
The Zürich festival presents Tainá as a work co-developed with Indigenous communities, showing how local knowledge, languages, and data stay community-governed.
After The Algorithm
Dec 4, 202506 · GrantGainForest selected for Klarna's AI for Climate Resilience Program
Klarna names GainForest e.V. among six selected innovators using AI to support communities on the climate frontlines.
Klarna
Jun 28, 202507 · HackathonGainForest DeepGov team wins the Bhutan NDI-powered international hackathon
Kuensel reports that Team DeepGov and Team Cyberchain emerged as winners of Bhutan's three-day hackathon for decentralised applications powered by National Digital Identity.
Kuensel
May 7, 202508 · TalkGainForest at ChangeNOW: nature as an economic choice
ChangeNOW's mainstage conversation features GainForest's approach to AI, remote sensing, blockchain, and ecosystem monitoring for nature finance.
ChangeNOW
Mar 8, 202509 · DocumentaryCNA documents how GainForest helps locals conserve mangroves in the Philippines
Tech To Save The World visits the Philippines to show how data collection and AI-backed tools can support mangrove conservation with local communities.
CNA Insider
Feb 25, 202510 · FeatureAtmos features Taina as Indigenous communities safeguard culture with their own ChatGPT
The Atmos feature follows Tainá, GainForest's community-owned AI assistant for storing local knowledge, stories, and biodiversity observations on community terms.
Atmos
Feb 17, 202511 · TalkGainForest bridges nature, data, and human opportunity
Funding the Commons features GainForest's model for conservation data income and regenerative funding for rainforest communities.
Funding the Commons
Jan 9, 202512 · PodcastConservation Data Income with GainForest
Ma Earth hosts the GainForest team for a long-form conversation on the origin story, current initiatives, retro funding, AI, Web3, and XPRIZE.
Ma Earth
Dec 12, 202413 · TalkETH Alumni spotlights GainForest's climate AI journey
The ETH Alumni interview traces GainForest's path from climate activism to XPRIZE-winning AI tools that support Indigenous and local communities.
ETH Alumni
Nov 15, 202414 · AwardGainForest is an XPRIZE Rainforest Winner
GainForest and partners are recognised through the XPRIZE Rainforest competition for technology that can reveal and protect biodiversity.
XPRIZE
Sep 1, 202415 · PressGainForest and ETH BiodivX in Amazonia
Swissnex reports on Switzerland–Amazonia collaboration, including the ETH BiodivX and GainForest work around biodiversity data and AI.
Swissnex Brazil
Jul 29, 202416 · PressFolha: international competition accelerates Amazon biodiversity research
Folha reports from the XPRIZE Rainforest finals in Manaus, where Tainá and field technologies help communities document Amazon biodiversity.
Folha de S.Paulo
Jun 13, 202417 · FeatureSSIR Brasil: the virtual guardian of forests
Stanford Social Innovation Review Brasil features Taina, GainForest's chatbot for safeguarding knowledge, rights, and biodiversity in Amazon communities.
SSIR Brasil
Jan 1, 202318 · FeatureGoethe-Institut: A Renaissance of Nature
Goethe-Institut interviews GainForest on how modern technologies can restore trust, support conservation, and value nature more fairly.
Goethe-Institut
Nov 3, 202219 · AwardBCG & Handelsblatt Vordenker:innen 2022
GainForest is featured among forward-thinking initiatives connecting food systems, climate, and nature-positive innovation.
BCG & Handelsblatt
May 23, 202220 · TalkWorld Economic Forum: A Wake-Up Call from Nature
At the 2022 Open Forum in Davos, the discussion connects deforestation, lifestyle choices, pandemic risk, and the urgent need to protect nature.
World Economic Forum
Apr 12, 202221 · PressParaguay announces partnership with GainForest
The Ministerio del Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible announces support to strengthen protected areas in the Chaco.
MADES Paraguay
Jan 10, 202222 · TalkTEDx: learning from nature's stewards
The TEDx talk introduces GainForest's early vision for cryptocurrency, community incentives, and reversing deforestation with forest stewards.
TEDx
Dec 12, 202123 · PressThe Edge Malaysia: climate tech and the way forward
The Edge Malaysia profiles climate-tech pathways and includes GainForest's AI approach to conservation finance and transparent forest protection.
The Edge Malaysia
Jun 15, 202124 · TalkSwiss Re: using artificial intelligence for hope
Swiss Re's Algorithms for Hope programme presents GainForest's AI and data-systems approach to monitoring ecosystems and financing restoration.
Swiss Re Institute
May 28, 201925 · PressMicrosoft: incentivizing sustainability with GainForest and the UN
Microsoft News highlights GainForest's early use of Azure, AI, blockchain, and UN collaboration to reward measurable forest protection in the Amazon.
Microsoft News
Merci to our supporters.
Foundations, labs, and partners who fund the open infrastructure behind every project on this page.
