Deep in the Amazon jungle, Amazon Indians (Amerindians) are using handheld GPS devices and Google Earth to plot their own version of “points of interest”: water sources, areas of illegal logging, sacred areas, hunting spots, religious sanctuaries, and medicinal plants, according to New Scientist.

Along with local governments, ACT is training Amerindians to map and catalog their forest home, which will help in management and protection of ancestral rainforests by monitoring deforestation and preventing illegal incursions on their land. At the same time the efforts are strengthening cultural ties between indigenous youths and their parents and grandparents, who are sharing lore about the locations of life-saving medicinal plants and other resources.

Other natives study satellite images on Google Earth for signs of illegal gold-mining activities.

. “We’ve got guys painted red and nothing else, walking through the jungle with GPS units mapping their land,” said Mark Plotkin, head of the nonprofit Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) and author of an article on Mongabay.

Once a suspect area is pinpointed, they note the coordinates, they go on foot patrol to investigate further or mark the spot for future airplane flyovers.

The Amerindians use Google Earth to check for signs of miners.

When finished this month, the map will provide the Brazilian government with details of areas vulnerable to exploitation yet difficult to patrol and protect. The effort started last, August, is expected, to result in the first ethnographic map for Rondonia Brazil’s westernmost state.