With
Global Positioning System (GPS) technology getting cheaper and
affordable to a wider audience, its use has become widespread
among NGOs and Indigenous Peoples' Organizations for the
demarcation of ancestral lands.
GPS is combined with
the use of topographical maps,
sketch maps,
3-dimensional models (P3DM)
and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for delineating boundaries, identifying locations, with
increasing accuracy.
In the Philippines GPS has been used
- among others - by the
Philippine
Association for Inter-Cultural Development (PAFID) to
demarcate Ancestral Domains and to produce supporting maps.
Still in some countries access to
topographical data at scales larger than 1:50,000 is
restricted, mapping by communities is prohibited and limited
to licensed geodetic engineers; resource-grade mapping is
not allowed and only high-accuracy, survey-grade is
accepted.
More on
georeferencing indigenous spatial
knowledge ...
