Symbiosis| Better Together
Awards & Nominations
Symbiosis has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Better Together
Symbiosis
Summary
Historically, indigenous people in Costa Rica have been violently expropriated of their lands, and their resources are irrationally exploited. Often, this situation ends in violence, murder and an increased social gap. This is happening throughout Latin America. Symbiosis is a web platform that seeks to raise awareness and call to action, through the showcase of satellite images related to exploitation of indigenous territories and by the confrontation of local governments, organizations and the public in general by making visible the injustices and invalidation of the rights of indigenous groups.
How We Addressed This Challenge
Symbiosis, a web platform that aims to showcase the problem of expropriation of the territories of indigenous groups and give them a voice to raise awareness in the non-indigenous population. Working together towards the end of injustices, as a way to reduce the gap to achieve indigenous autonomy as part of their human rights.
Symbiosis Pitch Deck: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kMCo1rby-f4CgLDKNCDPs4a1Hf9pzjWu/view?usp=sharing
The platform displays data of the different groups, murders, confrontations, land expropriation, testimonies, and more information that we all need to know to take action to ensure our progress as a society. Through NASA resources, the user is shown different satellite images and layers of data related to the loss of vegetation in a timeline that allows to track and identify changes produced in indigenous reserves, as a result of land expropriation and exploitation of resources. It also provides the user with tools to report injustices or violence, support the indigenous economy and join local projects.
Through the augmented reality technology, Symbiosis gives the user a unique experience, a journey through the reserves in order to understand and empathize with the problems they're facing.
Platform: https://www.standingforourroots.us/
Augmented reality tour: https://www.standingforourroots.us/tour
Team Members: https://www.standingforourroots.us/who-we-are
Take Action: https://www.standingforourroots.us/take-action
Hear their Voices: https://www.standingforourroots.us/news
How We Developed This Project
Land expropriation of indigenous territories is happening and natural resources are being destroyed by non-indigenous people that take those territories. The population in general shows a lack of interest in this situation and governmental actions are not always effective to validate indigenous people rights.
The idea of tackling this issue in a more immersive and active way motivated us to develop a web platform The objective of the platform goes beyond being informed about this situation: our mission is to engage people to support in different ways for closing this terrible gap indigenous people are going through. Some examples of technology involved during the process are web page software, satellite images, augmented reality and data collections.
To focus the attention into the indigenous land expropriation problem and its consequences such as natural resources loss, we applied the Enhanced Vegetation Layer of NASA Worldview to note the vegetation changes during a decade and presented it as a time series for the different national indigenous territories. Then, we included population, health, education and employment indicators from various sources and depicted them in an understandable way for everyone.
All the mentioned resources were included in a web platform, named “Standing Out For Our Roots” (https://www.standingforourroots.us/) for creation of local, national and global awareness and spreading an active support message.
As a team, visualizing the real problem from an outside view represented a huge challenge, because none of the members have directly experienced this kind of inequality, and it took a big amount of awareness and research. Besides addressing this hackathon challenge, we have grown and acquired knowledge for empathizing with this social struggle.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
NASA WorldView Data and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (L3, Monthly) from Aqua/Modis were applied in a time series, as a comparison method of vegetation density changes in indigenous territories, with the aim of exposing the progress in land expropriation with resources exploitation purposes, using NASA satellite images.
The Latin American and the Caribbean Population Time Series and the Administrative Unit Center Points with Population Estimates data collections from NASA SEDAC were also consulted to identify different indigenous populations in our country and all over the continent.
Project Demo
Data & Resources
NASA resources
EOSDIS Worldview. NASA. https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/.
Enhanced Vegetation Index (L3, Monthly) Aqua/Modis: https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?v=-87.43480268744463,7.718876885539928,-80.96589215662271,10.830205010539927&t=2015-10-04-T22%3A14%3A36Z&l=MODIS_Aqua_L3_EVI_Monthly,Reference_Labels(hidden),Reference_Features(hidden),Coastlines,VIIRS_NOAA20_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor(hidden),VIIRS_SNPP_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor(hidden),MODIS_Aqua_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor(hidden),MODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor(hidden)
NASA SEDAC: Latin American and the Caribbean Population Time Series
https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/popdynamics-lac-pop-1990-2000
Administrative Unit Center Points with Population Estimates, v4.11 (2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020)
Articles
MacKay, F., Morales, A. (2014). Violaciones de los derechos territoriales de los pueblos indígenas: El ejemplo de Costa Rica. Editorial Forest Peoples Programme.
MNICR. (2015). Situación de los Derechos Humanos relativos a los Pueblos Indígenas en referencia a los compromisos asumidos por Costa Rica con motivo del examen períodico universal Mayo 2012-Mayo 2014. Mesa Nacional Indígena de Costa Rica.
Montero, F. (2016). La brecha social en Costa Rica: Un tema de definición económica, política. Revista Latinoamericana de Derechos Humanos 27(2): 85-112.
Vargas, G., Campos, D. (2017). Impacto de las políticas estatales en la autonomía de los territorios indígenas en la zona sur de Costa Rica: el caso del territorio de Salitre. Revista Geo UERJ 31: 607-620.
News
Chacón, V. (2020). Another indigenous man killed in Costa Rica’s southern zone. The Tico Times, Costa Rica.
Lakhani, N. (2020). Costa Rican indigenous land activist killed by armed mob. The Guardian.
Martínez, A. (2020). Conflicto por tierras en territorio indígena de China Kichá se mantiene; Gobierno busca soluciones. Diario Delfino, Costa Rica.
Pérez, A. (2019). Pressure Mounts for Indigenous Rights in Costa Rica. Cultural Survival.
Prensa Latina. (2020). Fallo judicial es contrario a derecho de indígenas de Costa Rica. Diario El País, Costa Rica.
Prensa Latina (2020). Indígenas de Costa Rica aseguran celebración está teñida de sangre. Diario El País, Costa Rica.
Vaughn, C. (2020). Brutal Bloodshed, Murder, Rape and Torture of Indigenous From Costa Rica. The Costa Rica Star, Costa Rica.
Villegas, A., Robles, F. (2020). Las disputas por tierras indígenas en Costa Rica se tornan violentas. Diario Clarín, Argentina.
Other sources
Fuentes, E. (2011). Características demográficas y socioeconómicas de las poblaciones indígenas de Costa Rica. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, Costa Rica.
INDER. (2019). El Plan de Recuperación de Territorios Indígenas del Inder muestra resultados concretos. Instituto Nacional de Desarrollo Rural, Costa Rica.
INEC. (2011). Población total en territorios indígenas por autoidentificación a la etnia indigena y sexo, según pueblo y territorio indígena. Censo 2011, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, Costa Rica.
INEC. (2011). Indicadores étnico-raciales según cantón y distrito. Censo 2011, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, Costa Rica.
INEC. (2011). Territorios Indígenas. Mapa 2011, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, Costa Rica.
UCR. (s.f.). Atlas de los Pueblos Indígenas de Costa Rica. Observatorio de Desarrollo, Universidad de Costa Rica.