GainForest joins Climate Collective: Battling Deforestation with AI, Citizen Science, and Transparent Impact
We are excited to announce the GainForest has joined the Climate Collective!
We need $130 billion per year to halt deforestation by 2030, according to the Energy Transitions Commission. Preserving forestland is not only important to maximize the planet’s natural carbon sinks, it also disproportionately affects Indigenous lands which are home to 80% of the planet’s biodiversity.
Founded in 2017 by Dr. David Dao, GainForest is on a mission to halt and reverse global deforestation by 2030. Working hand-in-hand with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, GainForest equips citizen scientists with tools and skills to gather and label ecological data. Through their Measure-To-Earn technology, these communities are directly rewarded for collecting ecological data, which is then made publicly available, fostering trust and boosting financial support for nature restoration and conservation efforts.
“Our core business is to create incentives that make environmental protection attractive and also financially beneficial for local communities,” says Dr. David Dao.
What makes GainForest stand out:
📊 Transparent impact verification: GainForest ensures transparency and fosters trust for conservation projects by leveraging AI and web3 technology to monitor and automate impact verification. For example, GainForest uses NFTrees, unique tokens linked directly to real-world data collected by local sensors, to provide complete transparency and traceability into climate impacts for both donors and local stewards.
🌍 Local partnership & benefit sharing: Local citizen scientists are central to GainForest’s approach to cross-reference and verify impact data collected by remote sensors. GainForest uses Conservation Basic Income to reward local communities for their climate positive work, such as planting mangroves or collecting forestry data.
🛰️Diverse tech solutions: GainForest employs a diverse toolkit for data collection, including bio-acoustic monitoring, drone imagery, field data collection, AI, satellite imagery, and even a novel Telegram bot for Indigenous communities to share spoken knowledge. These methods integrate with citizen science, enabling the creation of accurate AI models for biodiversity assessment.
Originally a Climate Collective grant recipient, we are proud of the strides GainForest has made in its journey to develop new digital tools in partnership with local communities and regenerate forests. Now, we’re excited to welcome them as a member of our community! 🌱
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