Google unveiled a cultural map of Brazil's Surui indigenous people, a tool that will help the Amazonian tribe share their knowledge of the forest and fight illegal logging. The map, the result of a five-year partnership between Surui chief Almir and Google, was released online for the first time at a business forum held on the sidelines of the UN Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.
The map, a collection of picture and videos mapping historical sites and offering 3D visualisation of Surui territory in the northwestern Brazilian state of Rondonia, is available on the site www.paiter.org as well as on Google Earth.
Almir, who proposed the idea of the map to Google during a visit to the United States five years ago, told a press conference that he was particularly proud of the contribution Surui youths made to the project, including narration.