Some indigenous tribes in the Amazon region have already embraced the internet. Now, Amazon communities are using GPS GPS devices to map out what belongs to them and to make sure their land stays in their hands.

To avoid getting steamrollered by developers, ranchers, loggers, miners, oilmen, and biopirates, tribes across the Amazon Basin have begun acquiring high tech tools to defend themselves. Much of the help in this effort has come from the Amazon Conservation Team, a Virginia environmental and cultural preservation organization, which provided equipment, cartographic expertise, and financial assistance. Now dozens of men like Wuta are walking the forests, mapping their lands with the aid of portable GPS devices.

The maps made my the indigenous communities are considered official documents by the government in Suriname. A recent case in Ecuador about disputed land was settled in Ecuador after the Shuar tribe proved land was theirs and not an American oil company’s.

In addition to GPS mapping, tribes are using Google Earth as a tool for territorial vigilance. The app’s satellite imagery can identify threats — an encroaching soy farm, say, or a river stained by the runoff from a gold mine. A few tribes in Brazil with Internet access are marking the coordinates of surreptitious activity they see in the images, then investigating on foot or passing the information to government enforcers.

Via / Wired

Image Via / Voice of America