Conservation Data Income

Conservation Data Income (CDI) is an end-to-end payment infrastructure that rewards local and Indigenous communities for ecological data collection. As of 2024, we have paid out more than $32,000 in CDI to communities supporting conservation efforts across the globe.

Within CDI market price for data is set by the community themselves. Every year, the community votes on a data council that governs data ownership, policy and pricing (e.g. 0.01 $ per min of bioacoustic recordings and 0.05 $ per MB of drone imagery collection).

GainForest has successfully implemented CDI in some of the world’s most remote regions, including the Amazon rainforest and the Southern Philippines. In these locations, CDI has funded critical digital infrastructure, including monthly Starlink subscription for communities and local NGOs, enabling their participation in the digital commons.