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Deep in the Amazon, the Indigenous Peoples of Aishalton are starting to use the latest aviation and space technology to protect their ancestral lands and cultural heritage. In an upcoming episode of “First Flights with Kate Broug,” Kate Broug and her team trek to the Amazon rainforest in Guyana — where running water is scarce, electricity is rare, and where drones now have become unlikely allies in a decades-long fight against illegal mining and environmental collapse.
Broug, a pilot, journalist, and documentary filmmaker takes her viewers on an eye-popping journey through the Amazon and its historic challenges. Kate’s latest episode showcases how a small indigenous community armed with modern aviation technology can fight and win high stakes battles for environmental conservation. Kate highlights the fascinating interaction of ancient traditions and technology as tribal villagers invoke long standing rituals and then mesh drones and satellite images to defend their environment and preserve their way of life.
Drones as guardians of the rainforest
Guyana’s Aishalton community has embraced innovative drone technology to help protect the Amazon. Villagers first use drones to create detailed 3D maps of their historic and spiritual lands. Those maps both beautifully represent the terrain and serve as critical evidence in asserting indigenous rights. The maps also help to document and protect areas of cultural significance from encroachment.
For example, the Aishalton drone team, led by a villager named Gavin, first successfully tracked an illegal aircraft and then used space assets to identify and document illegal clandestine airstrips being built near mining areas.
Drones now act as the community’s eyes and ears in otherwise dangerous areas. They capture photographic evidence of illegal mining and drug smuggling, providing crucial information to national law enforcement without putting villagers at risk. Today, satellite assets detect illegal activity, patrolling drones document it and then the authorities intervene. Previously, those same activities would have put villagers very much at risk by hiking through dense rainforest to find and confront often armed intruders.
Cameron Ellis, field director at The Rainforest Foundation US, explains, “With drones and satellite data, these communities can now see what’s happening deep in their own territories. This technology allows them to see and act, giving them the power to protect their lands in ways that previously were impossible.”
The Rainforest Foundation helps bring aviation technology to the Amazon
The Aishalton community’s drone program did not spring out of thin air. Instead, The Rainforest Foundation US played a significant role in supporting both Aishalton and other indigenous communities in their conservation efforts. The Foundation provides essential resources, including the drones themselves and access to commercial satellite imagery, empowering local leaders to protect their own lands through a combination of technology and legal advocacy.
“What we’re seeing here in Aishalton perfectly demonstrates how indigenous communities can use modern technology to protect their ancestral lands,” Cameron Ellis of The Rainforest Foundation US explains. “It doesn’t replace traditional knowledge but enhances it with new tools.”
The program’s ultimate success has been proven in its sustainability. Today, the Aishalton drone program operates largely self-sufficiently, with local villagers like Ezra Jeoffreys both piloting and maintaining the tribe’s drones. This self-reliance ensures that an indigenous community like Aishalton can continue its vital monitoring work going forward.
Balancing conservation, health, and local livelihoods in Aishalton
Kate Broug’s recent journey to Aishalton wasn’t without its own hurdles. Lying close to the disputed Venezuela-Guyana border, Aishalton is rife with international threats and illegal cross-border mining.
The new Guyanese government’s pro-mining stance also often puts itself at odds with indigenous conservation efforts. And a recent double malaria outbreak added unique risks for the First Flights crew. Despite these difficulties, Broug maintained a singular focus. “The challenges we faced to tell this story pale in comparison to what the people of Aishalton endure every single day,” she reflects. Behind the scenes, Broug kept a diary of her recent visit on Voiijer, a new social media app that connects explorers, researchers and nature enthusiasts.
For the Aishalton villagers, struggles such as violence and endemic disease are not fleeting, but constant. And they play out against a backdrop of competing interests — a precarious balance between preserving indigenous heritage and adapting to an increasingly invasive modern life.
As Broug observed, “When I first set foot in Aishalton, I brought with me a convenient dichotomy: the miners as villains, the villagers as victims. But the truth is far more complex. The miners, many of them actually themselves Indigenous peoples (and some even Aishalton villagers) are not only plunderers, they are also survivors, navigating a harsh reality in which environmental exploitation often feels like the only way out. And the villagers, far from being passive, are changing too — trying to become true stewards of the forest, armed with a professional grasp of aviation tech. It has become a story about two ways of living, each struggling to survive.”
“Chief of Chiefs” Tony James, former Tashao of the Aishalton village, encapsulates the community’s struggle: “We’ve always lived with the forest, but now we must defend it in new ways. The drones help us protect what’s ours from those who would destroy it for gold.”
A guide for indigenous tech-empowered conservation
Aishalton’s story represents not just a tale of new technology; it showcases how indigenous communities can take control of their own environmental destiny. By embracing drone technology and other modern tools, the people of Aishalton have become models for other communities facing similar challenges.
Kate Broug’s journey through the Amazon highlights a new fusion of traditional wisdom and modern technology, a trend that may help preserve many of the planet’s endangered ecosystems. The Aishalton community’s evolution serves as an inspiring call to action, reminding the world of the vital role indigenous peoples can play in environmental conservation and the power of technology to amplify their voices. Their story is proof of aviation technology’s potential to help fight for environmental preservation and cultural survival.
