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Indians Use Google Earth and GPS To Protect Amazon

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the captain-eplanet dept.

Damien1972 writes "Deep in the most remote jungles of South America, Amazon Indians are using Google Earth, GPS, and other technologies to protect their fast-dwindling home. Tribes in Suriname, Brazil, and Colombia are combining their traditional knowledge of the rainforest with Western technology to conserve forests and maintain ties to their history and cultural traditions. Indians use Google Earth to remotely monitor their lands by checking for signs of miners and GPS to map their lands. "Google Earth is used primarily for vigilance," says Vasco van Roosmalen, program director of a nonprofit involved in the project."

6 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Too bad they can only stop what happened years ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Those maps are out of date, it'll be useless to find new operations.

  2. Native Americans use Google Earth by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't think they outsourced it to India.

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    1. Re:Native Americans use Google Earth by redfieldp · · Score: 4, Informative

      Um, yes, that would be Brazil in South AMERICA. Hence, Native AMERICANS.

    2. Re:Native Americans use Google Earth by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 4, Informative

      you'll have to excuse some posters. They seem to think America only means the USA, when it refers to two continents.

      Just like India is a subcontinent just south of Asia.

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  3. Images were updated by request by xPsi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Initially, I thought that their exercise was futile because Google Earth doesn't not have real time images and it is impossible (at a glance, although sometimes you can tell with some detective work) to know when various pictures were taken (e.g. see the Google Earth FAQ). But, it turns out that the group working in the Amazon actively makes requests to Google to update certain images faster so they can legitimately monitor various regions. e.g. from TFA:
    ""When Google Earth updated these images earlier this year with higher resolution versions, we could find nearly all the disturbances in the forest....We offered the Google Earth team a list of coordinates where it would be helpful to have sharper images. We also discussed the possibility of finding ways to include the Indians' nonproprietary data, as a layer with Indian names, on Google Earth."

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  4. you do know... by Oo.et.oO · · Score: 4, Informative

    that indians are FROM INDIA, right?

    is this supposed to be like a queer calling a queer a queer?