A move to blend culture with maps to save vanishing forests

13 Oct 2013

With machetes slung over their shoulders and cooking pots tied to their packs, a team of seven surveyors set off from this sleepy hill town recently to complete a mapping project they hope will bring their village into existence for Indonesian officialdom, Christian Science Monitor reported. For four days, the team traversed the forest, guided only by local knowledge. When they arrived at a landmark – a river, a cave, a sacred grove – they would enter its coordinates into a GPS device.

Why? Because activists hope that good maps will be their best weapon in fighting a land grab by wealthy and powerful interests that has been under way for centuries.

There's a new type of indigenous activism taking root in the thin soils of Borneo – and around the world from the Philippines to Pacific islands such as Fiji to South America. At its root is the hope that sophisticated interactive maps – incorporating the precision of GPS satellite tools with cultural and land-use information that can only be obtained from residents on the ground – will convince governments to better defend traditional cultures and the natural resources they rely upon.

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