Indigenous rights now considered vital to protecting forests
- Danielle Willis
- Nov 3, 2016
- 2 min read
A NEW STUDY HAS REVEALED THAT THE PLANET’S INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES NEED TO BE GIVEN A BIGGER ROLE IN HELPING TO SOLVE THE ONGOING CLIMATE CHANGE CRISIS.
The research shows that at least a quarter of forest carbon is stored on communal land, Brazil in particular. It aims to bring to light the expansion of tribal land rights in the upcoming United Nations climate conference in Marrakech after authors have confirmed that expanding tribal land rights is the most cost effective method of protecting the forests and cutting carbon.
The research, carried out by the Rights and Resources Initiative, Woods Hole Research Centre and World Resources Institute hopes to include tribal involvement in national action plans.
However this is currently not the case for 167 out of 188 nations in the Paris Agreement, whereby an agreement was made that all nations must undertake ambitious efforts to fight climate change and adapt to its effects. It has a central aim of keeping the global temperature rise for the century well below 2 degrees Celsius and enters into force on November 4th this year.
Alain Frechette, one of the research’s authors, has backed national governments to include indigenous communities in climate policies, “when communities have secure forest rights, not only are the forests better protected, but the communities fare better. Everyone wins”.
He added, “By contrast, large scale development plans produce quick wins, but the long term environmental, economic and political costs are not accounted for, future generations are just left to pick up the pieces”.
The study estimates that community claimed lands sequester at least 54,546 million tonnes of carbon, with ownership of a tenth of that land being either public, unrecognised or disputed.
This raises major concerns that it could fall into the hands of developers, farmers, miners or others with their eyes on the land for short term financial gain without a single care for the long term environmental damage.
Nonetheless, citizens of countries far from the depths of the jungle are failing to acknowledge how they can help to solve the issue, regarding it as half a world away from the comforts of their own homes.
However the reality is, that just by recycling, refusing to buy products containing palm oil and choosing forest-friendly tissues and toilet roll, society as a whole can fight to protect the forests which we depend upon for our survival.
