By Jonathan Hoekstra

I recently ventured into the heart of Borneo to experience the sights and sounds of some of the world’s oldest and wildest tropical rainforests. 

One day, while surveying the green sea of unbroken forests from a hilltop vantage point, something unexpected caught my ear — another hiker was talking on a cell phone! At the time, I felt annoyed that my wilderness experience could be interrupted by that technological icon of city life. 

But the penetration of cell phones into the most remote parts of the world is not necessarily a bad thing…for conservation.

Info Tech Goes Grass Roots

Cell phones, computers and the Internet have revolutionized communications. You can now talk to almost anyone at anytime from anywhere in the world.

These information technologies have also accelerated economic globalization and the spread of consumerism. Now, some innovators are harnessing them as a force for bottom-up social change:   

• For the last decade, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has helped alleviate rural poverty in Bangladesh by financing micro-loans to entrepreneurial “phone ladies” who purchase cell phones and then sell minutes to others in their rural villages. The program has now expanded to pilot efforts in Africa.
   
• The One-Laptop-Per-Child Foundation is seeking to revolution education of poor children from Peru to Nigeria to Thailand by giving them durable laptop computers that are a tool for learning and a means for connecting to the larger world.

Google Earth and Local Empowerment

For conservationists, information technologies could be harnessed to address two significant challenges: helping people in an era of videophilia learn and care about faraway places, and empowering local conservationists in developing countries. 

Applications such as Google Earth enable anyone with an Internet connection to virtually explore any place on the planet using interactive maps and high-resolution satellite images.

By using Google Earth to layer on photos and more in-depth stories about conservation projects, conservationists can capture virtual explorers’ attention and solicit their support.  For instance, Google Earth can take you to Tanzania to learn about the chimpanzees of the Gombe Reserve and read Jane Goodall’s blog.   

The Internet and cell phones also help spread the word about entrepreneurial conservationists like farmers Angel and Wilson Rodrigo Paz. Instead of cutting down cloud forest to grow crops or raise cattle, they started a local eco-tourism business that now attracts birdwatchers from around the world to see rare and elusive antpittas on their property near Nanegalito, Ecuador.

The Nature Conservancy already uses Google Earth for internal purposes and to give virtual tours of projects such as the Mount Hamilton landscape near San Francisco, California. You can also find many of the Conservancy's preserves using our Google Preserve Map.

But conservationists are only beginning to tap the full and growing potential of these technologies. Better technologies are rapidly linking maps to photos, blogs and videos — making them available on cell phones as well as desktop computers.

These trends put the world at people’s fingertips as never before, giving each of us new opportunities to harness the power of information technology for conservation.  

Nature picture credits (left to right): © Google (Preserve map); © TNC (Jonathan Hoekstra)