After 40 years of suffering from oil contamination, indigenous groups in the Peruvian Amazon are fighting back, harnessing basic tools to document the pollution & pressure the government to hold the oil company accountable. In May 2013, Digital Democracy traveled to a remote part of the Peruvian Amazon to launch a new program with these groups. Remote Access, funded by the Knight News Challenge, is a mobile toolkit to empower people in hard-to-reach places to share critical environmental and human rights information. Follow our journey along the northern Amazon & up the Pastaza River to see how local indigenous groups are taking action, using basic tools to document four decades of oil spills and contamination.

1. 1
Launching Remote
Access in the
Peruvian Amazon

2. Remote Access:
A mobile toolkit to empower
populations in remote, off-the-grid
locations to share information on
human rights & environmental abuses
Winner: January 2013 Knight News Challenge

3. Remote Access has three components,
focused on helping users document,
manage and share information

4. Initial fieldwork
Pilot Project: Peru
• 3 weeks with indigenous
communities in oil-impacted areas
• 2 weeks of meetings with
government & advocacy partners
in Lima

5. Dd Team:
Gregor & Emily

6. Telmo
Community-based
monitors

7. 7
Rafael

8. 8
Adam

9. 9
Salvador

10. C
Context

11. Challenge: 40 years of oil contamination

12. 12
Testing a “remediated site”

13. 13
Visible oil at the
“remediated site”

14. 14

15. C
What did we do?

16. 16
Field visits
near the
Ecuador
border

17. 17
Walking the
pipeline

18. 18
Collecting water samples

19. 19
Four-day workshop

20. Dd team
20
Hand-drawn maps

21. 21

22. 22
Practicing with handheld GPS

23. • Tool development for Peru pilot
• Coordinating with local monitors
• Training for women monitors
• Coordinating with efforts in
Guyana, Ecuador & beyond
What’s next?
Follow www.digital-democracy.org for updates