{"id":60043716,"date":"2024-07-25T12:53:42","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T11:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?p=60043716"},"modified":"2024-07-25T14:24:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T13:24:12","slug":"in-brazil-tech-is-a-new-frontier-in-battles-over-indigenous-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/in-brazil-tech-is-a-new-frontier-in-battles-over-indigenous-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"In Brazil, tech is a new frontier in battles over Indigenous lands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Practising risky landings on makeshift airstrips from behind a screen, and accessing high-speed internet in the depths of the Amazon: tech advances are giving illegal miners in Brazil new ways to support their activities, presenting challenges for monitoring and forest protection in remote areas, including the territory of the crisis-hit Yanomami Indigenous people<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such miners, however, are also finding their efforts thwarted by inspection bodies and NGOs, who are fighting back using similarly new technology: artificial intelligence, and an online game using satellite imagery that crowdsources efforts to monitor deforestation and illegal mining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this tech-based battle between environmental preservation and destruction, an urgent situation is at stake: the lives of almost 30,000 Yanomami<\/a>, who are suffering due to the advance of illegal gold miners, or garimpeiros,<\/em> into their territory \u2013 incursions that are bringing disease, malnutrition and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ongoing humanitarian crisis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In January 2023, the Brazilian government declared<\/a> a public health emergency in the Yanomami territory, an area of over 9 million hectares across the states of Amazonas and Roraima, at the border with Venezuela. The declaration came after the discovery<\/a> of severe malnutrition, malaria and respiratory infections amongst the population, a result of water contamination and deforestation from illegal mining activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government established a taskforce<\/a> to expel miners from Yanomami land and bring the emergency under control. However, just months later, the garimpeiros<\/em> returned<\/a>. In March this year, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples estimated that there were 7,000 miners<\/a> active in the area. The environmental destruction continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/div>
Indigenous people protest against illegal mining in Manaus, Amazonas state. Yanomami communities have been affected by severe malnutrition, malaria and respiratory infections related to illegal mining activities (Image: Alberto C\u00e9sar Ara\u00fajo<\/a> \/ Amaz\u00f4nia Real<\/a>, CC BY-NC-SA<\/a>)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Data from Deter, the federal government\u2019s deforestation alert system, shows that mining caused the loss of 384 hectares of native vegetation in Yanomami territory in 2023 \u2013 more than double the 188 hectares recorded the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this remote region of the Amazon rainforest, where access is difficult, and rivers and roads are often impassable, prospectors mainly use aircraft to get around. To do this, their pilots must take their chances on precarious dirt runways, which are sometimes less than 300 metres long; the runways at S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Congonhas airport, by comparison, stretch over 1,000 metres. Any wrong manoeuvre can cost the lives of the crew, as well as the loss of any illegally exploited cargo, making thorough practise in landing and taking off in these conditions necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They may now find an unexpected space for this practice: Microsoft\u2019s Flight Simulator. Using satellite images and the topography<\/a> of the territory, the technology giant\u2019s paid software can simulate real-life situations for its user base that ranges from curious flight enthusiasts to professional pilots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paulo Figueiredo, going by the username Tchockozzo, states on a flight simulator modifications community website<\/a> that he is the son of a pilot who, between the 1970s and 1990s, landed on several of the challenging airstrips opened up by mining in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Figueiredo created flight simulator packages of these clandestine runways for users to download and use in the programme, and uploaded tutorial videos on editing the software to add the strips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n