Campaigning organisation Greenpeace has spent two months placing GPS trackers on illegal loggers in the Amazon using GPS tracking technology and satellite surveillance. The operation was designed to uncover the activities and movements of illegal loggers near Santarém, the centre of the logging industry in the Amazon. The investigation found that the timber is transported by trucks on highways at night to evade the police and that fake documentation is used to launder the timber.

GPS technology is being used to help define ancestral land boundaries by indigenous people in Indonesia. As land rights are intrinsically linked to sustainability, the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights will help to slow deforestation, whilst also securing community livelihoods and reducing land conflicts.