Amazon Tribes Police the Rainforest Through World Wide Web

Brazil's government declared it would provide free internet access to its native Amazonian tribes to help protect the world's largest rainforest from illegal logging and ranching. The environment and communications ministers signed an agreement Thursday with the Forest People's network to provide internet signal via satellite to 150 remote locations, many accessible only through riverboat. The stations would be used to request help from authorities and coordinate efforts to conserve the rain forest and consequently, the unique cultures that dwell there.

The ultimate goal of this widespread communications network is to encourage the tribes to participate in environmental management of the country. Francisco Costa of the Environment Ministry said in a statement "The government intends to strengthen the Forest People's Network, a digital web for monitoring, protection and education."

The ministry said City and state governments will first install computerized telecenters in the selected areas. Then the federal government would step in with the high speed satellite connections. The areas in 13 states, including the Pantanal wetlands and the poor northeast, were chosen by the Environment Ministry, the National Indian Foundation, or Funai, and the government environmental protection agency Ibama, the ministry said.

This unique plan comes two weeks after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva issued rules to carry out a law allowing for sustainable logging of national forests in the threatened Amazon area. Loggers now have to present a plan for sustainable management that preserves the forest while still allowing a commercial profit from it. Placing communication beacons in the deepest reaches of the forest helps to encourage loggers who "play by the rules" and rote out illegal logging.

Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/media/070330/X033004AU.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/world/americas/31briefs-amazon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin