About Terraso

At Terraso, we build powerful, usable, open-source digital tools in partnership with people building a healthier sustainable world. The Terraso project has included dozens of partners from around the world and across private, nonprofit, government, and university sectors.

How we work

As an organization, we operate according to seven product principles:

We include a diverse group of people throughout our processes.

• We work with geographically, culturally, and racially diverse co-design partners to encompass many perspectives.
• We seek out different voices and perspectives because we acknowledge that a variety of input creates better products.

We seek equity by prioritizing the needs of our less-resourced users over perpetuating the status quo.

• We design and test for users with disabilities.
• We prioritize people who rely on mobile devices and less access to technology and infrastructure.
• We build for those who have less access to funding.
• We seek to address the harms produced from oppressive systems by serving those most harmed by them.

We co-create Terraso, and build for what users need instead of what we think they should need.

• We listen to our users to decide what to build and how.
• We consult with users throughout our development process.
• We respect that our users are the experts of their context and accept their guidance.
• We will stop building something if we learn that it is not helping

We respect people’s rights and agency.

• We recognize that our users own their data.
• Users choose what happens to their content, including who can access it. They can remove it altogether.
• We will inform our users about possible outcomes of their choices in plain language.
• We build Terraso to be secure by default

Terraso is usable; ease of use is as important as other product considerations.

• We prioritize the novice user’s experience over the power user’s.
• We validate the usability of our solutions with real users.
• We strive to balance usability with speed and budget.

We are open – we participate in an open source ecosystem, rather than working in isolation.

• We make our code publicly available.
• Our plans for work are transparent.
• We build interoperable solutions – leveraging standard formats.
• We cooperate with and support other tool creators.
• We leverage existing solutions and practices when they can help us serve our users.

We never forget we’re building to support people prospering in harmony with nature.

• Our products support sustainable livelihoods and landscapes.
• We try to reduce social and environmental harms resulting from our work.

Our History

Terraso began as a part of a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit organization, Tech Matters. We joined the 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People initiative (1000L) consortium in 2019 as one of the core partners. Through that initiative, we developed data sharing and visualization tools for practitioners of landscape, or bioregional, management approaches. Terraso Story Maps emerged as a popular tool for people to share place-based stories of history, impact, and advocacy.

In 2022, the Terraso team assumed stewardship of the LandPKS project, and recreated the popular app as LandPKS Soil ID on a modern codebase with enhanced design and functionality. Today, LandPKS tools are used by land managers worldwide.