If you still don't own a GPS unit, then you are truly a step behind. Tribes across the Amazon Basin have begun acquiring these portable navigation units and using them to map out their lands.

These tribes have begun mapping the 20 million acres of land that they traditionally charted by foot and canoe in order to avoid getting overran by developers, ranchers, loggers, miners, oilmen, and biopirates. Much of the help in this effort has come from the Amazon Conservation Team, a Virginia environmental and cultural preservation organization, which provided equipment, cartographic expertise, and financial assistance.