Institutional transparency is a challenge for NGOs across the world. Tools that help track the impact of our efforts and present them in an accessible way are rare and normally require a significant investment. The Bolsa Floresta platform, built on Google technologies such as Google Maps Engine, Google Drive, YouTube and Street View helped us organize this kind of dataset in a way that is easy to visualize, understand and share with little in the way of programming complexity or investment.
Now, anyone can dive into the mapping visualizations of the State of Amazonas, navigate the rivers, forest, and communities through Google Street View imagery, or even browse 3D buildings inside protected areas. Most importantly, partners, government agencies and those who live within the benefited state-protected areas, can explore all kinds of informational map layers, enhancing institutional transparency, global awareness, exchange of sustainability practices and poverty alleviation solutions and improving internal planning capabilities.
The new platform is just one of the many ways FAS is using Google’s technologies to work towards a sustainable future on behalf of the communities of Brazil’s Amazon. Explore the map now or find out more about us at fas-amazonas.org.
The text reads: “Jenipapo fruit is produced by the jenipapo tree, which reaches twenty feet high. From the meaty part of the green fruit, an ink is extracted with which human skin can be painted. This makes the fruit very important for the Surui, because the art of painting is always included in everything that they do, especially in celebrations and rituals. The art of painting is one of the things most valued by Paiter. Each occasion calls for a different type of painting.”
Here’s a rich storytelling tour of the Surui Cultural Map, narrated by Chief Almir and the Surui youth who were the star mapmakers:
As Chief Almir says at the conclusion of the Surui people’s Google Earth tour:
Without the forest, our entire culture would disappear. And without our culture, the forest would have disappeared a long time ago. It’s important to live in a sustainable way and to strengthen those whose livelihoods directly depend on a healthy ecosystem. We have a 50-year sustainability plan, which includes solutions for our territory. An example is the Surui Carbon Project, which uses technology to monitor the carbon stock of forest and trade it in the market for carbon credits. Our hope is that we can come together virtually and in person, and that we can find and implement solutions together.
It’s been a great honor for us to work with the Surui people and to experience their world view, especially to see how they blend their traditional knowledge and culture with modern technology. We’ve learned from Chief Almir that partnerships, consensus and collaboration are central; in that spirit, we’d like to thank our partners on this project: ECAM, Kanindé and Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol, who has documented the life of the Surui people for more than twenty years.
You can watch a video of the tour or download it in English or Portuguese. To learn more about the Surui tribe, known as “Paiter Surui,” please visit www.paiter.org.
Posted by Rebecca Moore, Manager, Google Earth Outreach and Google Earth Engine
Once you’ve read through the stories and have an idea of what you might like to create, you can browse through our tutorials or request a software grant for our enterprise-level products like Google Earth Pro. Or, if you’re interested in an overview of all the tools available to you from Google, feel free to check out our Explore Tools page, where you’ll find information about the many Google mapping tools (both free and Pro) that are available to non-profits.
If you’re looking for additional training beyond the tutorials, check out our new Events page, where you can see where Google Earth Outreach will be next and where we’ve been in the past, including rich resources from past workshops.
If you want to change the world, we hope these new tools help. Happy mapping!
In this first phase of the project, the Google and FAS teams will visit and capture imagery from a 50km section of the Rio Negro River, extending from the Tumbira community near Manaus—the capital of the state of Amazonas—to the Terra Preta community. We’ll then process the imagery of the river and the communities as usual, stitching the still photos into 360-degree panoramics.
Image of the Tumbira Community
For many outdoor enthusiasts, travelers and environmentalists, this creates an opportunity to experience the wonders of the Amazon, which will be accessible in a way they’d previously only dreamed about. We’re honored to work with FAS on this project to bring the Amazon online for those who can’t visit in person, and help our partners share with the world the unique stories of its inhabitants and the beauty of this place they call home.
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