Access to this region is significantly restricted. It should be noted that severe passive opposition (such as placarded marches, public awareness, use of national and international media, etc.) and active opposition (including deliberately damaging equipment, damaging fuel lines, etc.) near the Grasberg mine has resulted in concerted media interest world-wide. Very few maps and data are available for these areas due to their inherent inaccessibility. The intention of this particular human rights study was to monitor mining corporation activities in these poorly documented regions. We applied to the GeoEye Foundation for satellite imagery data covering this region. This request followed previous studies I had been involved with in southern Sudan and Zimbabwe ( 1- 2). I was invited by Survival International, a human rights organization focused primarily on indigenous groups around the globe, to look closely at the Grasberg mine complex in Irian Jaya (West Papua). Operators such as GeoEye have provided metric earth observation and analysis with satellites such as IKONOS 2, which travels in a roughly 423km altitude polar orbit around the earth. Although the use of high resolution satellite imagery for monitoring human rights abuse was proposed even before the conflict in the former Yugoslavian state of Bosnia, only in the last decade has satellite imagery of sufficiently high resolution become available for mainstream human rights applications. Increased economic globalization and climate change pressure will likely increase the frequency and intensity of regional ethnic and resource motivated conflict. Space-based imagery now provides the GIS professional with the ability to monitor isolated regions and minority groups at risk of environmental exploitation and human rights abuse.
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