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November 15, 2006
Amazon Indians Using Google Earth to Protect Tropical Forests
This is a great story! A non-profit organization called the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) has been providing Amazon Indian natives (who know the tropical forests better than anyone) with GPS hand-held units and Google Earth so they can help keep track of illegal mining and tree cutting on their lands. Since Google has updated many of the areas with higher resolution, it has even been possible now to identify illegal mine sites in the satellite photos. The Indians are using the GPSes to mark location where roads, airports, and mining operations are located deep in the tropical forests. They then put the locations into Google Earth and are sharing the data with government officials to track down the illegal operations. Apparently, members of the Google Earth team have been helping them out. What a perfect example of combining technology with traditional hunting and land knowledge to help reduce environmental destruction and exploitation!
Read more details here at Mongabay.com.
Posted by FrankTaylor at November 15, 2006 01:47 PM
Comments
Posted by: G.Areendran at July 7, 2007 05:30 AM
Did you know that most of these organizations are not at all interested in helping to protect the indians or the rain forest? Behind their "good deeds" they are actually keeping their eye on the fortune that the forest hides, like: medications, gold, oil,wood, etc. There are over a thousand ilegal foreign organizations in the amazonas pretending to help to preserve the forest; worst of all is that they are convincing the world that the brazilians are destroying the forest, not them. The USA have destroyed most of theier forests and so did the europeans. Now, they are ilegally installed in our Amazonas, selling our trees, making ilegal researchs on medications and, still, convincing the world that the brazilians are doing this.
Posted by: Sonia at June 30, 2008 10:42 AM
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Excellent work. It has become imperative to use these technology to make conservation effort more effective and successful.
wish you the best