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Many people are familiar with Google's satellite photograph service "Google Earth." Well, there is an attempt to make use of this service to keep an eye on the Brazilian rainforest in order to help rein in illegal logging and gold mining.

The idea was generated by Mr. Almir Narayamoga, the chief of the indigenous Amazonian tribe, "Surui." The Surui live in a reservation measuring 600,000 acres (2,428 km2) in the Brazilian Amazon. Chief Almir said that he discovered illegal logging within the reservation by using Google Earth, and that is what gave him this idea.

The members of Surui have even mastered the use of GPS , and a workshop on how to use Google Earth will also be held shortly.

Google has been involved in environmental and humanitarian issues in the past, such as offering the United Nations Environment Programme's "Atlas of Our Changing Environment" on Google Earth, and information on the state of the conflict in Darfur , Sudan, in cooperation with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum among others.

Could we put a stop to the deforestation of the Amazonian rainforests if all Google Earth users around the world kept an eye on the area? First, "seeing is believing," so why not jump to the Brazilian Amazon with GoogleEarth !

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