"For us today new technologies are a weapon (...) with ancestral knowledge we use it as a form of resistance, to protect our territory," she told AFP on the sidelines of the conference.

Using video cameras, drones, GPS, mobile phones and social networks, a group of young people from their village monitor illegal incursions on their land and report them via a dedicated application, says the coordinator of the ethno-environmental defense association Kanindé, which brings together 21 indigenous peoples of the Amazon.

"But technology can be used to do evil," she warns, noting that traffickers also use satellite imagery.

Some 800,000 indigenous people live in Brazil, most of them in reserves that make up 13.75 percent of the territory, according to official figures.

Family of activists

Txai Surui follows in the footsteps of her parents who fought illegal logging and were threatened with death by traffickers.

The young woman produced the documentary "O territorio" (The territory) about the struggle of the Uru-eu-wau-wau people, and their mother, Ivaneide Bandeira, to protect ancestral lands in Rondônia (north).

Her father, Chief Almir Surui, whom she describes as "a visionary", was the first to use technology "to save the forest". In 2007, he knocked on the door of Google to realize with the Californian company "the cultural map" of the territory of the Paiter Surui people, its way of life, its dwellings, its fauna and flora.

Brazilian indigenous activist Txai Surui poses for AFP during the Web Summit Rio, Brazil, May 2, 2023 © MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP

Barefoot, face painted with black lines and a crown of multicolored feathers adorning his long hair, Txai Surui urges entrepreneurs of the new economy to go to the Amazon rainforest.

"We need people who work with new technologies to reconnect with nature (...) To those who tell me they want to help me with new apps, I tell them +come and meet us and see what we need+," says the activist, who is also a law student.

"Claim", "exert pressure"

The government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which took office in January, has made the fight against deforestation a priority. Last week, he signed decrees demarcating six new indigenous territories, the first since 2018.

The new reserves guarantee indigenous peoples the exclusive use of natural resources and scientists say these areas will be a brake on deforestation in the Amazon.

Indigenous activist Txai Surui (C, back), speaks during a panel discussion at the Web Summit Rio, Brazil, May 2, 2023Brazilian indigenous activist Txai Surui (C, back) speaks during a panel discussion at the Web Summit Rio 2023 at the RioCentro exhibition center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 2, 2023. © MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP

Under the government of far-right ex-President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), deforestation increased by 75% compared to the previous decade.

"Views have changed ... but we know there is still a long way to go," Surui said. "My role is to claim, to exert pressure, there are still many territories to delimit."

She said she hoped that Brazil would strengthen the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai), the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and the Ministry of the Environment. She points to Congress as "very conservative, more so than under the last administration," as a major obstacle to change.

The young woman implores global decision-makers not to look only at climate change through the prism of the economy: "We are almost at a point of no return (...) We have to stop thinking only about the economy but think about people."

© 2023 AFP