Surveillance Tech Helps Indigenous Groups Protect the Amazon
Indigenous people in Ecuador are using drones, trap cameras and GPS locators to keep intruders away from the rainforest.
Nixon Andy pairs technological tools like this drone with the ancestral wisdom of his people to detect and document threats to their territory.
Source: Peter Walle
Every few days, Nixon Andy grabs his spear, packs up his drone and walks deep into the Amazon rainforest on a two-day expedition to search for illegal loggers, miners and hunters.
Andy, 26, is a member of the A’i Cofán in northern Ecuador, an Indigenous community that has taken the policing of their land into their own hands. They rely on their ancestral knowledge of the rainforest, but have also more recently begun incorporating modern technology such as drones, trap cameras and GPS devices that run on renewable power.