The Mobilization of Drones for Indigenous Environmental Justice

There are some barriers to consider when you want to apply such an idea of providing drones to indigenous groups in the areas of Amazon. The very first obstacle that revealed itself to me in my mind was the issue of connection to the drone. The Amazon is obviously filled with incredibly tall and thick trees that would make a drone operator’s job incredibly difficult as the signal to the drone would be increasingly interrupted. In addition, uneven land masses will also cause further disruptions. In Colombia for instance, there are many elevation changes in certain regions (the famous city of Cali lies in a valley for example). The second obstacle is access to electricity. Typically when we think about indigenous people, we think about a lack of electricity in their lives compared to non-indigenous populations, as they usually live a more natural lifestyle in the Amazon. Without consistent access to electricity, giving indigenous people useful drones will turn out useless as they would not be able to use them out of a lack of charge.

So to explore these two issues, we explore possible solutions. In the case of signal, there are some rather feasible approaches; first, we could mobilize a movement to construct effective treehouses at the highest point possible for each of the communities that we assist so that the done operators can work from there; second, we could provide relay modules/devices for drones that would be attached to the highest point possible. That would make a treehouse unnecessary, but we would also still have to solve the lack of electricity. The alternative is that we combine both approaches depending on the circumstances of the community we seek to aid. Considering that indigenous communities most likely already have experience with constructing tree structures, it wouldn’t be an incredibly difficult process to pull off. We could have volunteers or organizations help with the effort.

In the case of the electricity needed to power such drone efforts, the solution could very well be solar panels for the communities that lack in the basic power supply needed to maintain consistent drone usage. For example, wherever we put the treehouse that is used to react to a lack of signal, we would simply add solar panels to the treehouse. It is extremely convenient as the solar panels are already at a high point compared to the rest of the trees so it will be effective in providing some electricity. The solar panels could be used to charge a battery that would then be used to charge the drone’s battery.

Sources:

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/83857/brazil-at-night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I63T2FSE2FY (DJI relay station)