Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva has just announced a plan to make the country’s Amazon region internet accessible! The belief is that Indigenous communities can participate in the struggle to protect the rain forest, and by providing them with free internet access, they will be better equipped to respond to any illegal activities in the area, including mining and ranching. This plan does require cooperation by local governments who must first provide the various Indigenous communities with computers.
Members of these Indigenous communities seem to have mixed feelings about this project. Some commented that in the past, being able to access the internet has helped them communicate with the police when illegal mining was occurring in the area; others commented that while they did not like computers they felt there wasn’t much they could do to fight against this change.
You can read the BBC’s article on this project here.