Growing community power to meet global biodiversity goals and build resilient ecosystems and communities under accelerating climate change.
This work brings together an interdisciplinary coalition of conservation scientists, technologists, community organizers, designers, philanthropic leaders, and more–each committed to advancing community-based stewardship as a critical pathway toward biodiversity protection, regeneration, and climate resilience.
Our team is led by the MIT Media Lab’s Community Biotechnology Initiative and includes Revive & Restore, Value Mentors, the Leading Change Network, Practicing Democracy Project, Parley for the Oceans, Alligator Head Foundation, One People One Reef, and the Harvard Kennedy School—working together to prototype new methods and models for growing community power and establishing relational infrastructure in conservation.
We build tools to grow community power in the age of emerging biotechnology. At the intersection of science, community organizing, and design, our work addresses one of the most urgent challenges of our time: how to ensure that the development and deployment of powerful technologies are guided by the people most affected. We create methods and systems that identify values, map power dynamics, and foster trust—enabling scientists, organizers, and local communities to co-shape ethical, effective, and enduring interventions. Our research asks not just what technologies we need, but who gets to decide, and how.
