Keywords
cartographic literacy
indigenous data sovereignty
tropical forests
geospatial technologies
How to Cite
Abstract
This article constitutes a socio-technical exploration of how community forest monitoring operates and circulates within indigenous and tropical contexts. Authored collaboratively by a western anthropologist and two indigenous cartographer-activists from Panama, this study meticulously explores the pathways through which a novel form of geospatial monitoring, based on high-tech, lightweight and easy-to-handle instruments, finds its way into indigenous strategies for territorial control and defense. It offers an in-depth insight into the endeavors of committed indigenous cartographers who are actively engaged in the dissemination of an autonomously-led monitoring device in Central America and contributes to the still relatively limited body of literature on the topic. This study sets aside a results-oriented approach, focusing instead on analyzing basic processes of technological appropriation in indigenous communities. We demonstrate how, despite the diversity of cultural and ecological contexts across our case studies, the socio-technical system we propose proved to be similarly implemented, precisely because it manages to bring into tension technologies with indigenous geographical knowledge and practices.
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