About
About this playbook
Who wrote Data is Soil, where the lessons come from, and how to use, translate and adapt them.
Data is Soil is a free course and workshop guide on Indigenous data sovereignty and AI that communities govern. GainForest wrote it with the GainForest Indigenous and Local Data Council, from the work we do with Indigenous and local communities who look after forests, mangroves and rivers.
Who we are
GainForest is a non-profit based in Zurich, Switzerland, registered in 2022. With Indigenous and local communities we look for new ways to fund the people who protect nature, fill the gaps in biodiversity data, build AI that communities govern, and make field tools such as sound recorders easier to use. The tools in the second half of this course, Taina, the GainForest app and Bumicerts, are ours. Taina's code is open source, and so are the data formats the GainForest app writes to ATProto.
In 2024, as part of the ETH BiodivX team with ETH Zurich, we won an XPRIZE Rainforest bonus prize for co-developing inclusive technology. The team gave the full $250,000 to an endowment for Indigenous scientists in the Amazon.
Where the lessons come from
Most of what is in here we learned in the field between 2023 and 2026: in Manaus and along the Rio Negro in Brazil, in the mangroves of Surigao del Sur in the Philippines, in coastal and southern Kenya, in Kampala and in Sabah. The field notes below tell those stories in more detail, often in the words of the people we worked with.
Two outside texts shape the course. The idea that data is soil comes from Audrey Tang's written statement to the Senate of Canada on Indigenous data sovereignty and AI. The CARE principles come from the Global Indigenous Data Alliance. Both are linked on the reading page.
How to use it
Use the lessons in your own workshops, print the handouts, and change whatever does not fit your place. If you translate a lesson or adapt an exercise, we would like to hear about it.
The course is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili and Bahasa Indonesia. The English text is the reference version. The translations may lag behind it, so tell us when something reads wrong.
Taina on this site
The small figure in the corner of the screen is Taina. She answers questions about the playbook from its lessons and handouts. Your messages are sent to an AI model provider to write her replies. This site does not keep a copy of the conversation.
Saving your progress
Your progress is saved in your browser. If you sign in with an ATProto account, for example a Bluesky account, it is also saved to your own data server as a record that you own.
Contact
Write to team@gainforest.net with corrections, questions, and stories from your own workshops.
From the field
Field notes
Most of what is in this playbook we learned in the field. These are the stories, usually written within weeks of each trip.
- Manaus, Brazil, September 2026Back in Manaus: field notes and forest soundsRecorders that stayed in the forest, a bug that put photos in the wrong place, and why unpaid data work cannot last.Read on the GainForest blog
- Arte & Escola na Floresta, near Manaus, June 2026What a community taught an AI about itselfChildren choose where to listen, parents ask what phones are for, and a group redesigns Taina's personality.Read on the GainForest blog
- Parque das Tribos, Manaus, June 2026What we learned by listening: deploying conservation AI in the AmazonA workshop and BioBlitz with about thirty people, and a conversation about what stays public and what stays close.Read on the GainForest blog
- Surigao del Sur, Philippines, February 2025Cash or crypto? Balancing fintech for conservation in the PhilippinesFollowing a payment from a grant to a mangrove surveyor's hand, and why people still chose cash.Read on the GainForest blog
- Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia, February 2026Field notes from Sabah: rethinking how we certify learningThree questions on a board, before and after: what do you know, what can you do, what have you done?Read on the GainForest blog
- 46 projects worldwide, January 2026Environmental impact certificates: financial barriers, data realitiesWhat the first version of Bumicerts got right and wrong, with the numbers.Read on the GainForest blog
- Kilifi, Kenya, April 2025Weaving culture and technology: lessons from KilifiMweria, a tradition of shared work, recorded as community vouchers with Grassroots Economics.Read on the GainForest blog
- Tsunza Peninsula, coastal Kenya, July 2025From field visit to Ecocert: supporting the Tsunza communityHand-dug fishponds, a mangrove nursery and a new education centre, and an Ecocert to help fund them.Read on the GainForest blog
- Amazon, Brazil and Zurich, December 2024Donating the XPRIZE Rainforest prize to future generationsWhy the team gave its $250,000 prize to an endowment for Indigenous scientists.Read on the GainForest blog
- Rio Negro, Brazil, November 2024Indigenous field notes from the Biodiversity OlympicsMarina Mura's own account of the XPRIZE Rainforest finals.Read on the GainForest blog
- Cagwait, Philippines, October 2024Deploying the AudioMoth with Oceanus ConservationA research question agreed with fisherfolk, and a bamboo raft at high tide.Read on the GainForest blog
- Partner network, July 2024Introducing the GainForest Data CouncilRegional representatives elected by community partners to co-create data policies.Read on the GainForest blog
- Manaus and Rio Negro, Brazil, July 2024GainForest's journey with ETH BiodivX, part 2: communityEight co-learning workshops, an Indigenous Data Council and a benefit-sharing agreement.Read on the GainForest blog
- Manaus, Brazil, July 2024Taina & Polly: towards equitable AI assistants with open-source modelsHow the first versions of Taina were designed to keep data inside the community.Read on the GainForest blog