Beyond Carbon was founded in 2024 to counter carbon-oriented forest data infrastructures with community-owned knowledges of landscapes.

Projects

Beyond Carbon has two components: (1) a data visualization prototype that explicitly connects forest carbon data with Indigenous and Local Communities’ (IPLC) stewardship practices; and (2) an immersive video installation that places different datasets into conversation with each other to encapsulate the deep interdependence between humans and our more-than-human planetary co-dwellers.

We take a two-pronged approach using technological prototypes and cultural interventions because we believe that we need multiple ways of knowing to understand, advocate for, and respect the stewardship traditions of communities on the frontlines of climate and environmental change.

Both components are ongoing collaborations with elders, women, and youth technologists of Mekar Raya village in West Kalimantan, Indonesia; and our in-country partners Tropenbos Indonesia and the Working Group of ICCAs in Indonesia (WGII).

The Installation

We bring together different 'ways of knowing' landscapes in a single-site triptych installation. A multi-sensory experience spanning oral history, data visualization, and animation, our aim is to ground carbon in lived histories across generations.

The Prototype

Our data visualization tool connects global carbon data with community-created maps to demonstrate the overlap between high carbon stock areas and traditionally stewarded forests, proving that forest carbon is inseparable from Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities' conservation traditions.

Resources

Writings

Scientists often erase the people who live in the forest

Felipe Mammoli

A recent interview conducted by the Center for Climate at the IT University of Copenhagen explored Technology Lead Dr. Felipe Mammoli's research into how data and technology often shape – and limit – how 'the forest' is perceived.

Knowing from Above

Madhuri Karak

Typographic illustrations compare top-down satellite imagery of forests with Indigenous understandings of forests in a mixed media essay for the independent magazine It’s Freezing in LA!

Exhibition in Mekar Raya

A recap of the installation's first iteration presented for community review in Mekar Raya village on February 18 2025.

Our Cyborgian Orchard

Felipe Mammoli and Madhuri Karak

A narrative experiment incorporating watercolors by community members of Mekar Raya village in West Kalimantan and earth observation data.