Ecobreves – Brazil: Digitally Mapping the Amazon Region

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 2 2009 (IPS) - A total of 1,815 digital maps will be completed this year to provide a greater knowledge of Brazil’s Amazon region, contributing data on official and clandestine roads, rivers, settlements, haciendas and schools. A result of the joint efforts of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics and the army, under the coordination of the Ministry of the Environment, these maps are drawn at a scale of 1:100,000. The first 551 maps were made public on Feb. 17.

“We are going to zoom in on Amazonia,” said Roberto Vizentin, the officer responsible for the project’s coordination at the Ministry.

The information provided by the maps will help plan actions for the region. “Public health bodies will be able to provide better coverage for the communities, law enforcement efforts will be more effective and efficient, and all of that will indirectly contribute to combat deforestation,” he explained to Tierramérica.

Thirty percent of the region is currently “off the map,” he said.