Paraguayan indigenous community goes digital to protect ancestral lands

Community leader Cornelia Flores (C) poses for a photograph with community members, in Isla Jovai Teju, Paraguay May 9, 2019. Picture taken May 9, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Adorno

ISLA JOVAI TEJU, Paraguay: Rumilda Fernández's indigenous community has long tended its ancestral lands in Paraguay, marking boundaries with an ancient system of names for trees and streams. Now, squeezed by deforestation and farming, the community is going digital to defend itself.

Fernández, 28, is one of the group's first technology-equipped forest monitors, traversing the narrow earthen tracks of the Isla Jovai Teju community's land to map the area with a smartphone app and GPS.