About Guardian Connector
Guardian Connector is a free and open-source digital platform for Indigenous guardianship, used to securely centralize, access, and derive insights from environmental and cultural data. Developed through collaboration between Indigenous community organizations, Conservation Metrics, Inc., Nia Tero, and other technical partners, Guardian Connector addresses the unique challenges faced by community organizations on the frontlines of protecting their territories.
Why Guardian Connector exists
Digital technology can play a vital role in supporting Indigenous Guardianship, helping communities gather and use information to care for their lands, waters, cultures, and collective well-being. Yet many off-the-shelf solutions fall short for Indigenous and local communities, who protect over 80% of the world’s biodiversity and more than 35% of intact forest landscapes.
These tools are often overly complex, built around Western data frameworks, dependent on external servers, and difficult to use in remote or low-connectivity environments. Just as critical, little attention is paid to where the data resides once collected, leaving communities without true ownership or control.
As highlighted in the UN Human Rights Council’s Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2025 Study on the Right of Indigenous Peoples to data, including with regard to data collection and disaggregation:
Indigenous Peoples remain largely excluded from the collection, use and application of data about them, their lands and their cultures. Existing data and data infrastructure fail to recognize Indigenous knowledge and world views and do not meet Indigenous Peoples’ current and future data needs.
Guardian Connector is being built with Indigenous partner organizations to help close this gap, guided by the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty and designed to support Indigenous-led guardianship. It is not intended to be an all-in-one solution that replaces every tool communities already use. Instead, it is designed to integrate with and build on tools and workflows that already work well for Indigenous organizations, providing connective infrastructure for managing, accessing, and using data across different systems and workflows.
What Guardian Connector Offers
🔥 Indigenous Guardianship: Tools and integrations that are specifically curated for Indigenous organizations to protect their lands, waters, cultures, and collective well-being
🛡️ Data Sovereignty: Complete ownership and control over community data
📊 Metrics and Reporting: Access to data visualization tools that can reflect Indigenous perspectives on well-being
🔗 Multi-tool Integration: Easy use of datasets from multiple monitoring and data collection tools
🔔 Near Real-time Alerts: Near real-time notifications about territorial incursions and environmental changes
🏠 Community-owned Storage: Data stored on infrastructure that community organizations own entirely
♻️ Long-term Sustainability: A platform designed to serve community organizations independently, with as little dependency on outside support as possible
How Guardian Connector works
Guardian Connector serves as a bridge between diverse data sources — from mapping and remote sensing to wildlife monitoring and surveys — and the outputs community organizations need, such as maps, dashboards, alerts, and reports. By transforming and storing information in a secure data warehouse, the platform ensures that community organizations can explore, share, and act on their data with confidence.
_A diagram of the Guardian Connector platform
Guardian Connector is already integrated with widely used tools: ArcGIS/Survey123, CoMapeo, CyberTracker, EpiCollect, Global Forest Watch, iNaturalist, KoboToolbox, Locus Map, Mapbox, ODK, OpenStreetMap, QField, SMART, Superset, Timelapse, and more. See GC Scripts Hub in the Reference section for more details.
Who is building Guardian Connector?
Guardian Connector is being co-created by Conservation Metrics, Inc. in close partnership with (and with funding from) Nia Tero, and a number of Indigenous partner organizations, including (in alphabetical order):
- Amazon Frontlines & Alianza Ceibo — Ecuador 🇪🇨
- Amerindian Peoples Association — Guyana 🇬🇾
- Association of Village Heads of Suriname (VIDS) — Suriname 🇸🇷
- Chepkitale Indigenous Peoples' Development Project — Kenya 🇰🇪
- Ilha Knowledge Institute & Mai Maasina Greenbelt — Solomon Islands 🇸🇧
- Instituto Iepé — Brazil 🇧🇷
- North Pakaraimas District Council — Guyana 🇬🇾
- Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia — Namibia 🇳🇦
- Pastoralist Women's Council — Tanzania 🇹🇿
- South Rupununi District Council — Guyana 🇬🇾
- Stichting Mulokot — Suriname 🇸🇷
- Ujamaa Community Resources Center — Tanzania 🇹🇿
- União dos Povos Indígenas do Vale do Javari (UNIVAJA) — Brazil 🇧🇷
- Upper Mazuruni District Council — Guyana 🇬🇾