Territorial and environmental monitoring for the Greater Tumucumaque-Wayamu Program in Northern Brazil

Instituto Iepé, APITIKATXI, APIWA, Awana Digital, Terras App Solutions, Nia Tero

Greater Tumucumaque-Wayamu, Brazil

The Greater Tumucumaque-Wayamu region comprises five Indigenous territories home to 64 unique communities, and together with buffer areas consisting of over 10 million hectares of largely pristine rainforest and savannah ecosystems. It is one of the most important intact forest landscapes in the Brazilian Amazon. The region’s Indigenous communities are organized by traditional leadership (caciques) and Indigenous organizations such as Association of Tiriyó, Katxuyana and Txikiyana Indigenous Peoples (APITIKATXI) and the Association of Waiana and Apalai Indigenous Peoples (APIWA). Together with their trusted partner organization Instituto Iepé, the organizations implement a long-term territorial protection program for the region which includes the regular use of forest mapping and monitoring tools and methodologies.

Project Goal
Instituto Iepé, APITIKATXI, and APIWA to protect the Greater Tumucumaque-Wayamu region through the continuous monitoring of threats and incursions, building the skills of the youth in the communities, and ongoing tracking of territorial and cultural indicators as part of the Indigenous territories’ Territorial and Environmental Management Plans (PGTA).

Conservation Metrics
Conservation Metrics is working closely with the partners to co-create a digital platform called GuardianConnector, a free and open-source data sovereignty platform for communities to securely access, explore, and derive insights from their data, which will be stored on premises they fully own. Conservation Metrics is also providing support with survey design, capacity building in mapping and monitoring methodologies and usage of tools, generation of near-real time change detection alerts, and data visualization on GuardianConnector.

Project Stats

1 Countries

6 Partners

9 Ethnicities

11,473,262 Hectares monitored

Testimonial

In 2022, during a mapping expedition, we discovered an illegal mining site inside of one of the Indigenous territories in Tumucumaque. When we returned from the expedition and investigated the site using satellite imagery, we found out that the mining activity had actually been ongoing for a year already! Now, with this new alerts system, we will be able to know about it within a matter of days or weeks, inform the communities, and alert the authorities to take action. This is an invaluable boost to our ongoing monitoring efforts to keep the region safe from land invasions.

Nacip Mahmoud Lauar Neto, Technical Assessor, Greater Tumucumaque-Wayamu Program, Instituto Iepé