Conservation groups, partnered with researchers from the New York University and the Johns Hopkins University, equipped Peruvian Amazon indigenous with satellite data and smartphones. For decades, these areas have been under attack from outsiders for a range of purposes including mining, logging and the planting of illicit crops like the coca plants used to manufacture cocaine.The research intended to investigate if putting information directly into the hands of forest communities would make a difference. The Indigenous groups that participated were able to reduce tree losses by half in the first year of the project. Deforestation rates dropped by 52% in the first year, and by 21% in the second. Reductions were greater in communities facing threats from illegal gold mining, logging and drugs.