The life and travels of an indigenous mapping expert

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Dear Friends,

Today is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

The Amazon Conservation Team relies on our indigenous partners to accomplish the work of protecting South America’s forests.

See how the mapping of ancestral lands in collaboration with indigenous people is central to our conservation work, in our latest interactive story map:

Keeng Kumu is a Waiwai indigenous person, residing in the village of Kwamalasamutu in southern Suriname, with an extraordinary talent for, and strong dedication to, exploration and mapping.

A born geographer, he created sketch maps of his natural and cultural landscape before learning to use modern technologies with the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT). This training with ACT enabled Keeng to produce pioneering large-scale and highly detailed maps of ancestral rainforests.

Keeng was born in Guyana, lived in Brazil, and has traveled extensively across the northeast Amazon.

Through this interactive story map, you may learn more about Keeng's extraordinary life, his journeys, his traditional knowledge, and his work to map indigenous lands while training others to do the same.

View the story map here (available in English and Dutch)

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