His grandfather defended the territory of Paiter Surui in the Brazilian state of Rondonia with a bow and arrow. Today, new technologies are the “weapon” of Tsai Surui and many other young indigenous activists to fight against illegal logging and mining in the Amazon, writes AFP.

Environmental activist Tsai SuruiPhoto: MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP / Profimedia

The 26-year-old Brazilian is one of the stars of the Web Summit Rio, a global meeting of the digital economy and new technologies, which for the first time outside of Europe this week brings together more than 20,000 entrepreneurs from major technology companies, startups and investors from around the world.

“For us today, new technologies are weapons (…) along with ancestral knowledge, we use them as a form of resistance to defend our territory,” she told AFP during a conference.

With the help of video cameras, drones, GPS, mobile phones and social networks, a group of young people in her region monitors illegal invasions of their lands and reports them through a special program, explains the coordinator of the Kaninde Ethno-Eco-Protection Association, which unites 21 indigenous peoples Amazonia.

“But the technology can be used to cause harm,” she warns, pointing out that traffickers are also using satellite imagery.

According to official figures, there are about 800,000 indigenous people living in Brazil, most of them in reserves, which make up 13.75 percent of the territory.

A family of environmental activists

Tsai Surui follows in the footsteps of her parents, who fought illegal logging and received death threats from human traffickers.

The young woman made a documentary film “O territorio” (Territory) about the struggle of the Uru-eu-wau-wau-wau people and her mother, Ivaneide Bandeira, to protect their ancestral lands in the northern state of Rondônia.

Her father, Chief Almir Surui, whom she describes as a “visionary,” was the first to use technology “to save the forest.”

In 2007, he knocked on Google’s door to work with a California-based company to create a “cultural map” of the Pieter Surui people’s territory, their way of life, homes, fauna and flora.