Data Council

A Data Council is a group within an organization that helps decide how data should be shared, published, and used.

This is something GainForest learned from our own deployments with communities and local partners. When data represents land, biodiversity, culture, stewardship, or community knowledge, decisions about publication should not depend on one person alone.

We suggest that organizations using GainForest.app consider creating their own Data Council, especially when data is collected by or about a community.

Data governance works best when decisions include the people connected to the land, knowledge, and evidence being shared.

Why have a Data Council?

A Data Council helps organizations make fairer and more transparent decisions about data.

It can support:

• community consent around data publication

• privacy and safety decisions

• decisions about what should or should not be public

• review of sensitive cultural, ecological, or location data

• shared responsibility instead of one-person decision-making

• stronger trust between communities, organizations, and partners

This is especially important when data includes biodiversity locations, community knowledge, land stewardship activities, photos, audio recordings, or evidence that may affect how a place or community is represented.

Who should be included?

We encourage a mix of voices, such as:

• women

• primary knowledge holders

• youth

• community representatives

• people involved in field data collection

• people responsible for organizational decisions

The goal is not to make the process complicated. The goal is to make sure decisions about data publication reflect the whole community, not only the person uploading the file.

How it works on GainForest.app

Organizations can add members and assign some members to the Data Council from the organization Members tab.

Invite members to your organization, then assign selected members to the Data Council.

A simple process can look like this:

1. Add members to your organization.

2. Assign selected members to the Data Council.

3. Discuss internally what data should be published.

4. Review sensitive evidence before it is made public.

5. Decide together what gets published or shared.

GainForest Data Policy

The GainForest Data Council helped develop a Data Policy to guide ethical data management and fair data practices across partnerships.

Read the Data Policy

Related organization pages

Creating your organizationUser Permissions