“The world has never had such strong evidence of the role of indigenous peoples in conserving the forests that represent the one existing solution to climate change,” said Abdon Nababan, secretary general of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, an Indonesian NGO.

This is a quote from an article, published on SciDevNet on a study presented during the 2015 Global Landscapes Forum on 5-6 December in Paris. The study highlights that indigenous people prevent carbon emissions through their stewardship of forests and pristine environments, writes SciDevNet.

…indigenous people oversee around a fifth of the world’s carbon stock, in the form of tropical forests. Altogether, 168 billion tonnes of carbon are stored on indigenous lands — around three times the world’s annual emissions — and this is in danger of being released if the societies looking after these lands are not strengthened, the study found. …

Forest cover is essential for absorbing and retaining the powerful greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, the 3,000 forum delegates were told. Protecting and enlarging forested areas would remove more CO2 from the air, an essential part of attempts to stem global warming….

But the event also heard that indigenous communities face problems in getting their role in climate stewardship recognised, as many are poor and lack official rights to their land and access to the legal system.

Read the full article at SciDevNet