Google is providing Google Earth software to help a tribe living in Brazil to map the Amazon rainforest and to show where there is illegal logging and gold mining.
The Surui tribe lives on a 600,000 acre reservation in Brazil. Members have already mastered Global Positioning System devices to map their land. Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui figures that many of the 1,200 members will soon be adept at computers and satellite internet connections to make use of Google Earth. Some got their first introduction to Google Earth Sunday night. The chief said he got the idea after seeing evidence of deforestation on his reservation on Google Earth.
Another benefit to the Suruis is that they will be able to chronicle their lives and describe their culture on the internet.
The chief said he is hoping that his tribe will receive donations of computers and other equipment to help them save their culture as well as the rainforest.
Some 40 years ago, the Surui tribe was using stone tools.
Indian reservations are the best preserved areas of the Amazon region which has lost about 20 per cent of the rainforest to loggers and ranchers in recent years. Approximately 400,000 Brazilian Indians live on reservations.
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