Deforestation in South America has had devastating effects on the global climate as large amounts of carbon dioxide are released. The best fix to mitigate that release of carbon dioxide may be more than just replanting trees: giving the indigenous people full rights to the land they know how to take care of best.
The carbon dioxide sequestered from the sustainable actions of indigenous peoples in Bolivia, Brazil, and Columbia is equivalent to taking between 9 and 12.6 million cars off the roads for one year according to the World Resources Institute. The indigenous populations leave forests intact which leads to less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and more being absorbed by the trees. The few trees they do cut down are harvested sustainability for use as timber within the community.
“New studies have shown us that the most reliable people to reach out to take care of our most important natural resource are the people that live there,” said Justin Catanoso, a contributor to Mongabay. “If the government gives them rights back to their land, they will know how to live sustainably,” said Catanoso.
Many indigenous communities in developing countries lack legal titles for the land they live on. This means they don’t have a permanent tenure and lack protection from being removed from the land. This also places the land and the people in danger of harsh government regulation or large corporations monetizing the land’s resources. Without the sustainable practices of these indigenous communities, many of these countries wouldn’t be able to reach their emission pledge under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Options like carbon capture devices at power plants to lower carbon dioxide release are shown to be much less cost-effective than relying on indigenous populations. According to the World Resources Institute, securing forestland for indigenous populations is 5 to 29 times less expensive than the cost of carbon capture at coal-fired power plants. The statistic goes up to between 7 to 42 times less expensive for gas-fired power plants.
Despite deforestation rates being three to four times lower in titled land of indigenous communities than in non-indigenous land, many of these indigenous communities remain unrecognized and without protection from their respective governments. Developing nations have especially placed less urgency on the conservation of these communities and the forests they live on in favor for monetizing the forest’s resources.
“Indigenous people simply don’t look at the land as solely a thing to monetize,” Catanoso said. “They figure out ways to live in harmony with the land.”
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