Technology: GPS and Cameras

In the rainforests of Africa's Congo Basin, hundreds of thousands of indigenous people live as hunter gatherers, depending on the forest's natural resources for their survival. Yet most have no legal rights to the land that has been their home for many years.

RFUK's "Mapping for Rights" program trains forest people to map their land using GPS devices, marking the areas they use for activities such as hunting and fishing -- as well as their sacred sites -- and the routes they use to access these vital areas.

But GPS technology is helping indigenous people map the land they call home and produce documents that can help preserve their access to the forest that is their lifeblood.

The GPS information is used to create a definitive map of the land used by these semi-nomadic communities, which can be used to challenge decisions that see them excluded from areas of forest.

As reported on CNN, a similar project has existed for more than 10 years in the Cameroon, where tribes in the Boumba Bek collected honey, mangoes and medicinal plants prior to it receiving National Park status under the jurisdiction of the World Wildlife Fund.

The Baka people were able to provide similar GPS based evidence and restore their right to operate within the region.

GPS offers an opportunity to these indigenous peoples to talk in the technological language that those contesting their rights have traditionally used to defeat them, and provides a very portable, low impact way of preserving their way of life.

The Baka people are also using video cameras provided by UNDP and the Global Environment Facility to document how climate change is damaging the forests where they live, and this is just one way the UNDP is helping indigenous people.

The Bake people also formed an organization called Okani (“rise up”) to help train other communities in filming and storytelling techniques to talk about their lives. Their first film showed how they are coping with the impacts of climate change, and the swift transformations of their habitat. Along with this the indigenous people also use videos to submit project proposals, and get grants.

CNN.com

2012 GPS technology maps land rights for Africa's 'forest people'. Electronic document, http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/13/world/africa/rainforest-community-mapping/index.html, accessed November 26, 2012.

MAPS.com
2012 GPS – for the love of the rain forest. Electronic document, http://custommaps.wordpress.com/tag/baka-people-cameroon-and-gabon/, accessed November 26, 2012.