Emily Jacobi

Digital Democracy

Big Idea: 
Maps to defend your land

Digital Democracy empowers indigenous and marginalized communities to provide effective guardianship of their critical ecosystems. They provide participatory mapping software for communities to define, defend and manage their territories. Digital Democracy also builds the capacity of their users and communities to think strategically about what they need to be able to map and document. They bring communities together to plan how to use and leverage the technology in legal and regulatory campaigns.

Since becoming a youth journalist at age 13, Emily has spent her career asking how storytelling, maps and technology can be used by communities to defend their rights and protect what they love most. As Founder and Co-Director of Digital Democracy, Emily and her team have supported frontline communities to map over millions acres of rainforest, halt mining and oil concessions, and stem the tide of deforestation in biodiverse regions.

Henry Arnhold Fellows