• It is only recently that messaging services and social media have become available to Brazil's indigenous peoples in the Amazon rainforest.
• Thanks to technology, inhabitants can report the arrival of suspicious individuals and vehicles.
• Deforestation in Brazil's vast green expanse increased by 76 per cent in 2021 compared with 2018.

The Amazon rainforest in Brazil, the green lung of the Earth, continues to be under threat. Illegal activities involving the overexploitation of timber, mines and natural resources remain a serious problem for the Amazon's green expanse to this day. Technology, however, is coming to the aid of local tribes: a rapidly expanding network of antennas is enabling indigenous groups to use phones, cameras and social media to gain visibility and pressure authorities into responding swiftly to threats.

Timber and gold taken from the Amazon

The Yanomami state, in northern Brazil, is just one of the territories within the Amazon, yet it is as large as Portugal. The area is so vast that, despite growing deforestation, many zones are still remote and far removed from civilisation. This does not stop criminal organisations, which continue to send loggers, poachers and illegal miners into isolated locations. Illegal gold prospectors are one of the biggest problems for the Yanomami region, as they enter protected areas and destroy flora and fauna in their quest for the precious metal.

The Associated Press ✓ @AP

𝕏

How are tribes in the Amazon rainforest fighting back against bad actors? They're using social media as connectivity increases.
apne.ws/kR0J35P

♥ 54💬 3 3 mag 2022 · Apri su X →

Until now, indigenous communities in Brazil had relied on radio to broadcast their distress calls and report wrongdoers. It was then up to environmental rights groups to pass the warning on to the media and the public. In recent years, however, non-profit organisations have been discredited by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who supports the legalisation of mining and proposes the exploitation of land in protected indigenous territories. Now, thanks to the installation of internet antennas at some remote points in the Amazon, tribes have the ability to alert other communities in real time and to quickly share news of dangers posed by traffickers and poachers.

Technology to the rescue

"If used correctly, technology is a great help for real-time monitoring and reporting," said Nara Baré, head of the Coordination of Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon, speaking to the Los Angeles Times. "External pressure to get the federal government to act in Amazonian territories has been very important." The smartphone signal can be weak and slow, especially on rainy days, but it has connected people who were previously impossibly far apart and is sufficient to get photos and videos out of the forest. Indigenous rights organisations such as Health in harmony and Instituto socioambiental have handled the installation of the antennas. 17 of these have been erected in the river areas of the Amazon, where communities of the Xipaia tribes live. Thanks to the connection, a barge that was dredging the pristine river in search of gold was reported in a short space of time, and a few days later the intruders were arrested.

New technologies, however, can also be exploited by wrongdoers: the installation of a wi-fi network allows them to quickly obtain advice on movements and on where to hide machinery used for illegal activities. This does not change the fact that for Amazonian indigenous peoples, connectivity means protection and greater visibility. It is a necessary modernisation, given that abuses against the Amazon show no sign of abating. The tribes are ready to embrace technology if it means halting the exploitation of the forest and amplifying their message — a cry of anguish that has for years troubled the green lung of the Earth.