Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

3 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Best way to ensure conservation by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The combination of technology and private property looks like the best way to ensure conservation. Make sure the land in question belongs to somebody, so they have an incentive to take care of it; and give them the tech tools to do so. They will do it without taxing others. No EPA budget busting, no snail darter lawsuits, no taking of private property. About the only taxpayer expenses are the maintenance of the cops and judicial system to handle civil or criminal complaints that the tribe may have - and that is mostly a sunk cost anyway.

    Sorry to risk starting a political debate ( but after all this is slashdot, so that is effectively a sunk cost too. )

    1. Re:Best way to ensure conservation by KillerCow · · Score: 5, Interesting
      The combination of technology and private property looks like the best way to ensure conservation. Make sure the land in question belongs to somebody, so they have an incentive to take care of it


      The Tragedy of the Commons defeats this argument. If I'm the private owner, why should I spend my money to preserve it when I could make money be selling the land to a clear-cutter? Yes, there's less rain-forest now, but that cost is paid by society, not by me. I personally get net ahead by abusing my piece of the commons.

      Individuals do what is best for themselves individually. Collectives can do what is best for the collective. The only way to protect a commons is through government, because it represents the collective of the people.
    2. Re:Best way to ensure conservation by diersing · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That worked wonder in North America didn't it.