This is where drones and spies seem like the right approach. It can’t be hard to get a labourer on site with a cellphone or even just a tracker no?
The spy would have to be internal people who are turned, which is not easy either because these folks are not educated, and would have trouble hiding their new income or acting within the confines of a information providing program.
Not impossible, but unfortunately, our government doesn't have the resources.
Regarding drones, the area is impossibly large. If we had enough cash, live satellite monitoring and deployed army stations for every zone would be the ideal solution.
The real issue would be distinguishing between "illegal and prohibited" and "illegal but allowed" and "not illegal" activities in these communities since they rely so deeply on their environments for everything.
Drones are a drop in the bucket.
My point was exactly about the fact that "cheap" doesn't cut it, unfortunately.
Check google maps and see how you'd get to and from here (notice, getting up here would be the "easy" part of the journey - there's even "street view" https://maps.app.goo.gl/2XEL3J3aJWoLEGY58 )
0- https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/articles/cv2edkw84zmo (Portuguese)
https://www.starlink.com/map https://www.starlink.com/br/business https://www.starlink.com/br/residential https://www.starlink.com/br/service-plans
The article mentions thrice the use of Starlink by the miners:
> Cabral said; they must have been warned that the G.E.F. was coming. He pointed to a white rectangular antenna on a tall pole in the center of the camp and said, “Starlink”—Elon Musk’s portable satellite-communications system.
> “Wherever the miners have Starlink, we’re at a real disadvantage,” Finger told me. “They can warn each other there is a raid going on in the territory, and they can organize their work better.”
> The new farm had a Starlink connection, and, as the rains abated, a pilot said that he was sure the farm manager would warn the miners that we were coming.
And then do what with it? I live in an EU country where illegal timber exploitation is rife, and there's not much a lone person with a drone can do.
A lot of these areas are relatively remote and the underfunded police and rangers are usually quite far away and slow to show up, even when they're not paid by the timber mafia to look the other way. And by the time authorities do show up, the mobsters have been most likely tipped off and cleared the area.
And if you're an average joe trying to directly interfere you're putting your life in danger since you're standing in the way of a multi million euro industry and there's camera footage of volunteer forest watchers being assaulted by timer mobsters on quad bikes wearing balaklavas.
If this is happening in the EU I can't imagine what it's like in other places.