Indigenous people

The focus of the Windhoek conference was a sharing of experiences of how mapping and other participatory applications of geo-spatial information technology (GIT) can help empower indigenous peoples and rural communities to protect biodiversity and the natural resources on which they are reliant.

Although anthropologists and cultural geographers have explored "place" in various senses, little cross-cultural examination of "kinds of places", or ecotopes, has been presented from an ethno-ecological perspective. In this volume, indigenous and local understandings of landscape are investigated to better understand how human communities relate to their terrestrial and aquatic resources.

This book contains presentations by renowned Brazilian scientists and ambientalists on themes which unite man, nature and sustainable development of Brazil's Amazonia. Written for the general public and mixing scientific articles with views of everyday life, this book takes readers deep into the complex maze of environmental and social issues found at the heart of Brazilian Amazonia.