Developing a UAV-Based Monitoring Program with Indigenous Peoples

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are quickly becoming an important part of the conservation and natural resource management toolkit. Scholars and practitioners alike are adopting UAVs to study ecological phenomena and contribute to natural resource management decision-making processes. But while UAVs have been readily adopted in the global north their movement into spaces where resource management decision-making processes can benefit from the aerial perspective has not kept pace. In this paper, we describe the process we followed to introduce UAVs to two Amerindian communities in the North Rupununi, Guyana. Following consultations on the benefits and potential dangers associated with UAV operation, we successfully built and flew UAVs over swidden agriculture plots of various ages with indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples suggested that UAVs can be important tools in their natural resource management efforts and in planning for long-term food security. We suggest that scholars willing to embrace and respect indigenous culture, regulatory guidelines, and customary norms, can build mutualistic relationships with indigenous peoples to introduce technology. The adoption of UAVs by indigenous people can lead to potential global-level benefits, including their involvement in monitoring above-ground biomass and carbon sequestration potential on their lands, rather than importing experts to complete these tasks.