Nature ID: UNDP's Vision for a Digital Infrastructure to Drive Climate and Nature Action

UNDP’s The Case for Nature ID proposes a groundbreaking digital infrastructure to integrate environmental, social, and Indigenous data for coordinated climate and biodiversity action. By enabling secure, interoperable data exchange, Nature ID aims to empower inclusive governance, sustainable finance, and ecological stewardship at scale.

In a groundbreaking initiative led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with research powerhouses like University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), The Rockefeller Foundation, Co-Develop, GIZ, and the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), a new digital solution has emerged to tackle the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Published in March 2025, The Case for Nature ID presents a forward-thinking proposal to develop Nature ID—a modular, scalable Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) that can revolutionize how environmental data is shared, accessed, and acted upon. Rather than acting as a central database, Nature ID would serve as an interoperability layer, connecting fragmented datasets from satellite imagery, government records, Indigenous knowledge systems, and environmental sensors. The goal is to create a shared infrastructure that empowers governments, communities, researchers, and private sector players to collaborate more efficiently in protecting the natural world.

From Disjointed Data to Coordinated Action

One of the report’s central observations is that environmental data is currently fragmented, difficult to verify, and often locked in isolated systems. This impedes efforts to track land use, monitor biodiversity, assess climate finance impacts, and comply with global treaties like the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Nature ID proposes to transform this chaos into coherence. By enabling secure, consent-based data sharing and linking it to identity systems, payment platforms, and legal frameworks, the infrastructure would allow users to assemble a complete and verified picture of natural ecosystems, land ownership, and conservation efforts. It would not require building new systems from scratch but rather connecting existing tools through open standards and application programming interfaces (APIs). This middle-layer approach makes Nature ID adaptable, resilient, and capable of supporting local solutions while meeting global standards.

Learning from Brazil and India: Real-World Case Studies

The viability of the Nature ID model is backed by real-world examples. Brazil’s Cadastro Ambiental Rural (CAR), a digital land registry platform, has played a pivotal role in enforcing the national Forest Code by requiring landowners to declare environmental features on their property. While CAR has faced challenges like overlapping land claims and low verification rates, it has still served as a crucial tool for managing conservation programs and disbursing payments for ecosystem services (PES) through initiatives like Floresta+. The Brazilian government is now working to strengthen CAR’s interoperability by connecting it with remote sensing data and financial platforms—an effort aligned with Nature ID’s vision.

Meanwhile, India’s Forest Stack, developed with support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), exemplifies a layered DPI approach to forest conservation. It integrates geospatial databases, carbon project inventories, species directories, and mobile field data collection tools, allowing multiple stakeholders to access and contribute to a unified data environment. The project supports biodiversity protection, forest governance, and even carbon credit generation. These initiatives offer valuable blueprints for how Nature ID can scale and adapt across different regions and ecosystems.

Biodiversity, Finance, and Traceability: Nature ID in Action

Nature ID is designed to deliver public value across three critical domains: biodiversity monitoring, nature-positive finance, and supply chain traceability. In biodiversity conservation, it can bridge the gap between global scientific databases and local knowledge, enabling semantic interoperability. For instance, if Indigenous communities record species under local names, Nature ID could translate them into universally recognized classifications, allowing data to be harmonized without erasing cultural context. This would support better-informed conservation policies and help local communities gain recognition and resources for their ecological stewardship.

In climate and biodiversity finance, Nature ID can streamline the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of nature-positive investments. By linking environmental data with financial flows and identity systems, it could enable accurate tracking of payments, prevent double-counting in carbon markets, and provide transparency in results-based financing schemes. On the supply chain front, Nature ID offers a solution to emerging global regulations like the EU Deforestation Regulation. By connecting commodity production data with land use and environmental metrics, it could support exporters in proving that their products are deforestation-free, particularly in countries with many smallholder farmers, where compliance can be resource-intensive.

Centering Indigenous Knowledge and Rights

One of the most powerful aspects of the report is its emphasis on Indigenous data sovereignty. With contributions from Indigenous-led organizations such as Kinray Hub, the report advocates for tools like biocultural data legitimacy deeds and traditional knowledge (TK) labels. These mechanisms ensure that Indigenous communities retain control over their data and determine how it is accessed, interpreted, and monetized. Nature ID is envisioned not merely as a technical platform but as a tool for environmental justice, strengthening land claims, protecting sacred sites, and supporting culturally informed climate action. It calls for inclusive governance models where Indigenous Peoples are treated not as data sources but as co-creators and equity partners.

The report also acknowledges the challenges ahead. Technical issues like data overload, semantic mismatches, and cybersecurity risks must be addressed. Social risks such as misuse of Indigenous knowledge, political resistance to transparency, or digital exclusion demand proactive governance and inclusive design. Nature ID’s success will depend on building trust, ensuring consent, and adopting a modular, adaptable approach tailored to each region’s legal, technological, and social landscape.

By connecting the dots between climate data, community knowledge, digital finance, and public accountability, The Case for Nature ID proposes a transformative infrastructure that could become the bedrock of planetary protection. If embraced and executed wisely, Nature ID has the potential not only to accelerate the green transition but to redefine humanity’s relationship with nature, making it more respectful, reciprocal, and resilient.