After years of toxic oil spills, indigenous Peruvians use tech to fight back | World news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/14/after-years-of-toxic-oil-spills-indigenous-peruvians-use-tech-to-fight-
Armed with territorial knowledge, rubber boots, smartphones and drones, indigenous Amazonians in Peru are doing what state and private oil companies have long failed to do: report oil spills that have been polluting their corner of the rainforest for decades.
Fidel Sandi, 33, a leader in the indigenous Achuar community of San Cristobal, plunges a stick into the spongy soil of a palm swamp and watches as sticky crude bubbles to the surface leaving an oily sheen on the water.
“The trees are drying out, the people gather fruit here for the market, there are animals here that they hunt, but everything is polluted,” Sandi sighs with a mixture of anger and exasperation. Gazing at the palms, he has a keen eye for the signs of oil contamination. Now he can use his smartphone to gather geo-referenced photographic and video evidence to report to Peru’s environmental supervision agency OEFA .