Thursday, March 28, 2024
 
Click HERE to sign up to receive Eye On Sun Valley's Daily News Email
 
Saving Rainforests with Mapping
Loading
   
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
 

BY KAREN BOSSICK

Cameron Ellis has found a unique way to save the rainforests.

This mapmaker and anthropologist works with indigenous communities to map territories that are threatened by logging, mining, ranching, drug trafficking and other developmental pressures.

Ellis will talk about his mapping projects in Panama’s Darien Gap, Guyana Shield and the Peruvian Amazon at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 20, at Ketchum’s Community Library.

Ellis says globalization has brought immense pressure on indigenous people and their land in the past 50 years. And they often find themselves caught in a battle with narco-guerrillas and corrupt or ineffective government officials.

“The world looks very different to an indigenous person who is fighting against odds for their land…or just trying to cover a few miles of highway among unfriendly faces,” says Cameron Ellis, a Seattle native who began working with Native Future in 2006. “Our goal is to help these people get their stories out via maps, photos, films and animations.”

Ellis studied political science at UCLA, then evolutionary anthropology at the University of New Mexico where he looked for common algorithms in geographic patterns in human evolutionary ecology.

The maps he created in Eastern Panama helped result in legislative changes in Panama creating a legal mechanism for indigenous communities to apply for permanent title to their lands.

He currently runs the GIS shop at the Sonoran Institute, a Bozeman-based planning and conservation NGO working on land-use issues in western North America, while continuing to provide support to Native future. He also has worked with the Peregrine Fund, a raptor research and conservation institution. 

~  Today's Topics ~


Lou Whittaker Leaves Behind a Legacy of Mountaineering and Storytelling

Free Range Poetry Society to Hold Second Gathering Tonight

Easter Bunny to Begin Hopping Friday
 
 

 

 

 
Website problems? Contact:
Michael Hobbs
General Manager /Webmaster
Mike@EyeOnSunValley.com
 
Got a story? Contact:
Karen Bossick
Editor in Chief
(208) 578-2111
Karen@EyeOnSunValley.com
 
 
Advertising /Marketing /Public Relations
Leisa Hollister
Chief Marketing Officer
(208) 450-9993
leisahollister@gmail.com
 
Brandi Huizar
Account Executive
(208) 329-2050
brandi@eyeonsunvalley.com
 
 
ABOUT US
EyeOnSunValley.com is the largest online daily news media service in The Wood River Valley, publishing 7 days a week. Our website publication features current news articles, feature stories, local sports articles and video content articles. The Eye On Sun Valley Show is a weekly primetime television show focusing on highlighted news stories of the week airing Monday-Sunday, COX Channel 13. See our interactive Kiosks around town throughout the Wood River Valley!
 
info@eyeonsunvalley.com      Press Releases only
 
P: 208.720.8212
P.O. Box 1453 Ketchum, ID  83340
LOGIN

© Copyright 2023 Eye on Sun Valley