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| Photo credit: ITU/V. Martin |
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil visited
ITU in Geneva on 15 June 2009 to receive his World
Telecommunication and Information Society Award,
which he had accepted in a message via video link
on 18 May. The Award is given each year to distinguished
people for their contributions to building an
inclusive and more equitable information society.
Addressing Geneva’s international diplomatic
community and ITU staff, President Lula said he
was pleased to see international recognition for the
Brazilian government’s work to promote digital inclusion
and a safe and democratic cyberspace, especially
for children and teenagers. “We are determined to
fight digital exclusion, which is today one of the major
constraints in the quest for development. To reduce
inequalities we need to increase access to modern
communication technologies for a larger number
of people,” the President said. And he stressed that
“people should be able to use these technologies
in a critical and interactive way. This is important to
promote the involvement of all people in the knowledge
society”.
Presenting the Award, ITU Secretary-General
Hamadoun I. Touré described how the President has
consistently put social problems and information and
communication technologies (ICT) at the top of the
agenda. “Brazil’s progress in the development of
ICT is remarkable, and puts the country firmly at the
forefront of the wireless revolution,” Dr Touré noted.
With 155 million mobile phones, of which 5 million
are third-generation (3G), the country has a mobile
teledensity of almost 80 per cent. At the beginning of
2009, over a third of the population was online, with
more than ten million subscribers to fixed broadband
services and almost three million to mobile broadband.
And the law approved by President Lula in
2008 against the sexual exploitation of children on
the Internet “should serve as a shining example for
all countries,” Dr Touré commented.
President Lula commended ITU for launching
the Global Cybersecurity Agenda. He noted that the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) had
given ITU a mandate to strengthen cybersecurity and
said ITU is the right place to coordinate this endeavour.
“The challenge of cybercrime demonstrates the
importance of discussing Internet governance,” the
President added, and ITU is where governments and
civil society can come together for that debate. He
said that in fighting online paedophiles, ITU could
define standards to be adopted by all countries. “We
need a multilateral instrument that would stimulate
effective international cooperation,” he said.
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Sixty years ago, on 15 August 1949, Brazil ratified the International Telecommunication
Convention of Atlantic City. Dr Touré gave President Lula a copy of the ratification
certificate, saying “it is a commemoration of the long, shared road ITU and Brazil
have travelled together”.
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| Photo credit: ITU/V. Martin |
Historic connection with ITU
Brazil and ITU have had a fruitful partnership
since1877, when Brazil joined the Union just 12 years
after its foundation. In 1906, it was one of the
27 countries which signed the first Radiotelegraph
Convention. Brazil has hosted many important
events for ITU, including major broadcasting planning
conferences, regional TELECOM events, the World
Telecommunication Standardization Assembly in
2004, and other key meetings, including on 3G mobile
communications. Since 1992, it has been the
home of ITU’s Regional Office for the Americas.
Brazil's satellites help monitor our planet
Dr Touré drew attention to Brazil’s position as
“one of the world’s most important players in satellite
communications”. It has operated geostationary
and non-geostationary satellite networks since
the early 1970s, and given the country’s large size,
“Space systems play a vital role in helping to connect
remote populations, as well as in remote sensing and
monitoring climate change,” Dr Touré said.
Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research
(INPE), established in 1961, is responsible for programmes
to use satellite imagery in environmental
surveys; for developing software for image processing,
and for providing training courses for users of
remote sensing and geographic information systems.
The data are made freely available to academics and
all who need them, showing such features as changes
in land use in the Amazon basin, water resources,
and hazardous meteorological events. So far, some
500 000 images of Brazil have been distributed to
around 15 000 users from the country’s public and
private institutions.
As well as scanning its own territory, Brazil’s satellites
make significant contributions to global efforts
to monitor the planet. In 1988, the China-Brazil
Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) programme was inaugurated by INPE and the Chinese Academy of
Space Technology, aimed at establishing a complete
remote sensing system (with Space and ground elements)
to supply both countries with multispectral
remotely sensed imagery. The first satellite, CBERS-1,
was launched in 1999, followed by CBERS-2 in 2003
and CBERS-2B in 2007. The satellites CBERS-3 and
CBERS-4 are to be launched in 2011 and 2014.
CBERS-2B scans the entire planet over a 26-day
period with three different imaging cameras. It
transmits multispectral, 20-metre-resolution images
and other data to three ground receiving stations
in China and one in Brazil. The satellite also carries
a transponder for collecting data from weather stations,
river gauges and other ground-based observation
platforms. This is particularly helpful for obtaining
data from remote regions such as rainforests
and mountains. The CBERS programme enables the
two countries to gather data cost-effectively on their
huge national territories.
Free distribution of data
Under the government of President Lula, Brazil
adopted a policy in 2004 of sharing satellite data
freely worldwide, in order to support sustainable
development and protect the environment while
improving people’s welfare. Since May 2006, INPE
has been offering, at no cost, images to countries
in Latin America that are covered by its receiving
station in the State of Mato Grosso. China has introduced
a similar policy on open access, and more
than 200 000 CBERS images have been distributed
for free, with China’s Earth and Natural Resources
Ministry as the main user.
The CBERS programme is a successful example of
South-South cooperation that is leading to broader
distribution of data from Earth-observation satellites
to nations that might otherwise not have access. For
example, a service to provide images at no charge
to users across Africa was announced in 2007 at a
ministerial meeting in South Africa of the Group on
Earth Observations (GEO). Brazil and China have also
signed agreements with South Africa, Spain and Italy
on using ground stations to download and process
CBERS imagery and distribute it via the communication
satellites of the GEONETCast system. The four
receiving stations are located in the Canary Islands;
Hartebeesthoek, South Africa; Malindi, Kenya, and
Matera, Italy. The service, launched in 2008, initially
in South Africa, will provide the continent with satellite
imagery to monitor and respond to natural disasters
and environmental threats.
In future, Brazil plans to continue offering open
access to the data from all of its Earth observation
satellites, including “Amazonia-1”, to be launched in
2011 to monitor deforestation in the tropics.
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