Seeds on Cahuilla lands in California, U.S. by Nancy Kelsey (Anishinaabe)/Nia Tero
Biocultural Monitoring
Indigenous data sovereignty for thriving futures
@ Photo Credit: JJ Javier.
Indigenous Peoples protect vast biodiverse areas that are under constant threat.
A new biocultural monitoring tool aims to improve Indigenous Peoples' access to digital data resources.
Developed in collaboration with our Indigenous partners and Conservation Metrics, this tool offers a revolutionary platform to help defend their lands and cultures.
GuardianConnector enables Indigenous organizations to securely centralize, access, and derive insights from their self-managed environmental and cultural data – which can drive decisions about the future of their lands and cultures.
More about GuardianConnector
Biocultural monitoring refers to the practice of tracking ecosystems and cultural data to better understand and reflect on the interconnectedness of Indigenous Peoples and the places they call home.
With GuardianConnector, Indigenous Peoples are able to:
- Monitor the health of their territories
- Identify and respond to threats such as encroachments by extractive industry
- Record their stories and knowledge
- Create and manage community surveys
- Store and control their own data
- Strengthen their data-supported advocacy and thereby better exercise their sovereignty
This also allows our partners the ability to determine the most effective outputs including maps, dashboards, alerts, and reports.
As a biocultural monitoring tool, GuardianConnector advances data-driven climate solutions that center Indigenous Peoples as co-creators and stewards of technology rather than end-users.
It is a force multiplier for Indigenous Peoples’ guardianship.
Here's more about how it works.
Data sovereignty refers to Indigenous Peoples' self-determined right to collect, own and protect their own data.
As the UN Human Rights Council's Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples notes: "Indigenous Peoples remain largely excluded from the collection, use and application of data about them, their lands and their cultures." GuardianConnector offers Indigenous Peoples a key solution to this growing digital divide.